Wanderings: Rila 7 Lakes

August 23, 2019

No Roman sites today as we headed to the Rila Mountains south of Sofia to do some hiking. A chair lift took us from 1,500 meters up to about 2,100 meters. It was interesting to watch the tall trees decrease in number as we ascended, then the trees shortened and disappeared at the top of the chair lift.

The hike begins with a steep ascent to the top of a wide ridge where the first of the 7 glacial lakes (Lower Lake) is visible. Further moderate hiking brings Fish Lake, Trefoil Lake, and Twin Lake into view. We had some lunch beside Kidney Lake and savored the deep green-blue water on this beautiful sunny day. A steep ascent to Heart Lake was followed by another to Teardrop Lake and then to the highest point on our hike at Lakes Peak (about 2500 meters). From here, all 7 lakes are visible. Some circles were visible on the ground below; the paneurhythmn dances are performed here in mid August each year: https://youtu.be/0sKqUG9Yw5w

We noted some horses on the ridge out for summer pasture. Some bells soon directed our attention to a flock of sheep traversing a very narrow rocky ridge to the south; they seemed more sure-footed than I. The sheep were silhouetted against the deep blue sky.

The descent was challenging back to Kidney Lake; the ascending and descending trails are the same here and the path is rather eroded. Our guide (1) pointed out a whirl of dust from the parh. The dust and dirt have caused problems in the lakes as the formerly rocky bottoms begin to accumulate dirt and therefore to sprout grasses from the bottom.

The up and down paths diverged at Kidney Lake, with the down path passing by the lakes we had seen on the ascent from the ridge above. Total distance was about 5.5 miles.

(1) A guide is useful to have in unfamiliar mountains in a country where you don't speak the language.