From Borovets to Musala peak

Writing my last post made me really miss the mountain, so four hours after I had posted it, I was on my way to Borovets again. The forecast for this part of Rila had changed from rain to just clouds for the day so I thought that that was my chance.

For three weeks a lot of things had changed - the snow was fewer, the mud too, and the cabin lift was working already for the new summer season in the mountain, so there were a lot of people, even though it was during the week. Not so much to spoil completely my hike - it was still early, but nevertheless it was strange - looks like I am really accustomed to the empty mountain. I usually choose carefully the day, the hour, and the destination in order to avoid meeting many people, and I would have done it for this hike too, if I knew that the cabin was already working. For example I could have done it much later in the day. Anyway it was a gorgeous day - cloudy all the time which makes the hiking far more pleasant. I like this kind of days, because the sky changes all the time, and makes the mountain looks somehow more serious, mightier and real.

These first photos are again around the same lake with the many huts from my previous post (2389m). This time though, I continue upwards, I had around 600m left in altitude to the top - Musala peak. There are 7 lakes here also, I passed by 4 of them, and saw the other 3 from above - one of them is near the pathway from the cabin station and the other two - near the winter pathway to the peak. That's one of the nicest things about this place - that you either pass by lakes, or see them from above the whole time :). On the next two photo are all the first four of them.

The next two lakes are at 2544m and 2576m. They can be seen from the top. You already saw them on the first photo :)

This was the last photo, that I took with my camera and it turned off, I forgot to charge it, so the next photos are from my phone.

These lakes somehow divide the trail in parts and each of them is like a little milestone, indicating that you are closer.

The last one(before the peak) is the highest lake in Bulgaria - The Ice Lake at 2709m. There is a shelter next to it - "Ice Lake" Shelter.

I am usually tired most before the last lake, and after it something happens every time and I become super fast for the last 200m, even though this is the steepest part, probably because this is also the most beautiful part and this gives me some superpowers. The higher you get, the more you can see and the view becomes almost unreal.

Some fog appeared when I reached the peak and disappeared soon but I was already going down. I will take this like "come back again".

There is a meteorological station on the peak. I think the two meteorologists that work there spent 1 week there, than 1 week home, sometimes more if the weather is too bad and they can't change each other. And one of them has a facebook page(https://web.facebook.com/Musala.meteo), where he uploads regularly spectacular photos from the top - sunsets and sunrises mainly, often accompanied by love notes to the mountain :D I think this is so cool, to have the opportunity to spent so much time in such an amazing place. And it looks like he think so too.

Musala peak - 2925m.

I decided not to wait for the fog to clear, because I had a long way down. The view from there is really beautiful and I hope that I will be able to go again soon to see it.

It was a great hike, with some great numbers also :)

Thank you for checking out my blog!