Muratovo Lake in mid November

In the middle of November hiking in Pirin ??!!

That’s how I reacted when my childhood friend, a prominent mountaineer and traveler Dimo, told me about his plan for a one-day trek to Muratovo Lake on Sunday. However, when we arrived there I quickly realized that this is the perfect time for a walk to Muratovo Lake and Vlahin Preval.

We leave Sofia early, even a little too early for my taste, but still the day is definitely short, and the section Sofia – Vihren Hut takes 2 hours 30 minutes. At 7:00 AM the temperatures are not encouraging at all, there is fog, so I am equipped for a winter hike with snow – winter pants, gloves, gaiters, etc. (rather poor prognosis on my part).

The road to Dupnitsa is rather gloomy and cloudy, so we are a little worried about our photo opportunities in the mountian, because by design we have planned for a photo trip, not so much a hiking one.

When we approach the intersection for the Rila Monastery, however, the clouds thin out and the sun rises, which is exactly what we hope for.

At the entrance of the city of Bansko it is already very hot, and when we reach the hut, it turns to be really warm. Luckily for us we manage to get to the parking of the Vihren hut by car, and so we save valuable time, which we use for photo shooting. At the beginig of the trail there are other “enlightened” mountainieers and the parking lot in front of the hut is full, including a Ferrarri convertible, which rattles extremely unpleasantly (or pleasantly – depending on the point of view of the owner or the by-standers) while parking.

We start hiking together with a few more people from the hut, but the group gradually stretches along the route, and after a few pauses for photos, we completely lose sight of the others and are left alone in the company of the surrounding peaks. Temperatures are definitely well above expectations, so winter jackets have to go in our backpacks before we continue.

Arriving at Muratovo Lake we come across a group of hikers and a beachgoer. It’s 11:30 AM and the light is not suitable for photos at all. I use the moment to fly the drone to look around the area and snap a few panoramas, regardless of the inappropriate angle of light. After about 30 minutes we pack again and attack the steep slopes to the Vlahin Preval – the end point of today’s hike. The distance is not too long, but the route is quite steep. We crawl over the moraines, which are not smoothed at all, like those on Vitosha and look more like huge crystals of sea salt. Time and again we look at the panorama behind us, but I forbid myself to take photos with great will efforts, because I know that when we go down the light will be much better than now.

In about an hour we are up at the Vlahin Preval – the effort was worth it 100%! We have incredible panoramas to the Vlahino Lake, the Vihren Peak, the Koncheto pass, the Todorka Peak, to many other peaks in the distance and lakes in the valley below us. Each of us takes his time to take photos and at the end we even manage to shoot a few commercial shots + a commercial video for the wonderful 0% alcohol craft beer that Dimo recently imported to Bulgaria (along with a bunch of other soft versions of the most popular intoxicating drinks on the planet, including vodka, gin and rum). I can honestly say that this particular craft beer is not inferior in any way in taste to its best alcoholic brethren. You can taste it yourself by ordering at freespirit.bg.

Satisfied with what we saw and filmed, at 15:30 we begin our descend to the Muratovo Lake. The sun is already moving rapidly west and allows for wonderful panoramas, as I expected.

By the time we reach the lake, the sun is almost hidden behind the surrounding peaks, but still illuminates the ridges of the Donchovi Strazhi Peak, which generates the perfect reflection in the lake waters, together with the Todorka, massif completely bathed in golden light and the already darkening Muratov peak. Priceless!

During a previous visit in the winter, Dimo went down a slightly different route than the one we came up, so we decide to try the alternative one on the way back. There is no distinctive path, nor pebble pyramids for reference. At one point we reach one of the tributaries of the river Banderitsa and the trail disappears. The sun is already beyond the horizon and the light is slowly but surely fading, giving way to dusk. We are about 10 minutes away from the lake and the safe path we climbed, but we are both obviously adventurous enough to keep going.

Dimo tries a barely visible route through the mugo pine, which is about 2 meters high, than afret 20 meters gives up and goes back. Even if there was a path before, now it is overgrown. We decide to try going down the river. There are no guarantees that at some point the path will not become too steep, the mugo pine around is extremely thick and we will be blocked if we reach a waterfall. The shores are icy, it starts to get dark and we come back to reason, although according to the navigation the distance to the hiking trail and the bridges that we see below us in the valley, is not more than 160 m in a straight line.

We reach a consensus that it is best to return to the morning route, after we have lost about 40 minutes in unsuccessful attempts, covered in bruises by the mugo pines. However, the deviation was not entirely pointless – with the last sun rays I manage to capture a pretty decent panorama of the Todorka peak and the river Banderitsa winding through the valley below, framed by the surrounding thickets of mugo pines. I couldn’t have taken that point of view if we didn’t take the wrong path!

We are quite tired, so we tramp along the boring, well-trodden road to the hut and talk about how difficult it is sometimes to make the right decision to give up the wrong direction, route or action. It’s already quite dark and I can’t take pictures, so I put the camera in my backpack and just walk. The clouds in the eastern sky are colored in very pleasant violet-pink shades, which are reflected in the calm waters of Banderitsa, right next to us, but unfortunately I do not carry a tripod and I have no chance for meaningful photos.

Already at dusk we jump in the car, which is the last one left in the parking lot, and we drive in the dark towards Sofia and the election results.

You can see extended version of the video below (some moraines climbing, panoramas of the surrounding area and Muratovo lake at sunset).

The best spots for photos are marked on the map below.