Way Back Wednesday #1 – Bulgaria (June 2019)

Brief Injury Update!

First up, just wanted to give a quick update on my injury – I went to physio and it turns out it’s as mild as I suspected. They diagnosed it as greater trochanteric pain syndrome, so it should be maybe 3-4 weeks of downtime and a slow build back up to my running volume. I can ride my bike at least, though hills and intense bursts are gonna be avoided for now. Definitely incentivized to start incorporating a lot more mobility and strengthening to my training, it definitely took a backseat since I stopped going to the gym.

Back to Regularly Scheduled Programming…

So, in the meantime, and also since I don’t have any trips planned for the rest of this year, I’m going to do some shorter posts every 2-3 weeks highlighting some previous hiking experiences from the past. First up, Bulgaria! I travelled here after a conference and guest speaking slot in France and the UK respectively, in June 2019. I wanted to go somewhere which was affordable and slightly off the beaten path (not as much tourism as, for example, Croatia or Western Europe).

I was in Bulgaria for just one week, though I wish I had doubled that, since I really only got to see the western part of the country. Would have loved to have gone to Plovdiv and all the way to the Black Sea (Varna). It’s a really beautiful country, would highly recommend visiting.

In total, I went on five hikes (two I would say were more walks) during my time there, I will highlight a few of them below:

1. Vitosha Mountain
2. Belogradchik Fortress
3. Karaula / Mali Polich
4. Stob Pyramids
5. Seven Rila Lakes

Vitosha

Located just outside the capital, Sofia, this mountain (4th highest prominent peak in Bulgaria at 2290m) is easily accessible from the city and features a ski resort. There are actually a couple summits (Cherni Vrah and Golyam Resen, the higher being the former). It was a very foggy day when I went on this hike and as I did not have FATMAP or any navigation tools on hand, I ended up going up the trail to the lower summit. Trail was fairly well marked otherwise and was not terribly difficult.

Belogradchik

I ended up going to this small town because I saw a photo of the fortress on the Windows login screen! Really cool little spot with a lot of history, not much in the way of intense hikes but went on a nice little run/walk along a trail near the town.

Karaula & Mali Polich Peaks

This hike was located near Kocherinovo, a town I stayed in for a few days owing to its proximity to a few places I wanted to visit (Rila Monastery, Stob Pyramids, and Seven Rila Lakes. This was one that was recommended to me by my hosts’ grandson, and was fairly off the beaten trail! It started off in a small town called Padala, and began along a trail commonly used by farmers and their livestock. Sure enough, I got stuck in a traffic jam!

It then opened up into a fairly steep climb up to Karaula peak, where I saw some wild horses and it was a stunning view! From Karaula (1966m), the hike continued northward to a second, higher peak Mali Polich (2320m).

I opted to descend via a series of switchbacks which were not really well marked on the trail, and it got a bit dicey with my ankles. Overall, a really great hike, tranquil and not a lot of other people.

Stob Pyramids

This was a pretty short hike on an off day between longer hikes, where I visited the Stob Pyramids, which are natural rock formations in the Rila Mountains and are up to twelve meters high. It is believed these were formed via rainfall erosion. Very cool!

Seven Rila Lakes

This was my final hike on the trip, and boy was it a great one! This hike visited seven glacial mountain lakes in the Rila Mountains located between 2100 and 2500m above sea level, and climbed a high point Otovishki Vrah (2712m). The lakes range in size and elevation, and some (particularly the last one) were completely frozen over. This hike featured a lot of beautiful wildflowers and at the higher elevations, a ton of snow! Snowshoes would have been a great thing to have here.

For the descent from the top of the chairlift (I climbed up from the parking lot as I arrived super early and didn’t want to pay extra for transportation) I opted to take a jeep down the trail. It was absolutely chaotic!

Final Thoughts

Overall, this was a great trip, highly recommend Bulgaria. Looking forward to seeing more of Eastern Europe in the future!