🥾 Vitosha: Raspberries, Rustles, and Rezens
- bootsandbanter
- Aug 9
- 3 min read
🗓️ Date: 06 August 2025
📍 Route: Bai Krustyo ➝ Стената ➝ Черни връх ➝ Малък Резен loop
📏 Distance: 15.7 km
⛰️ Elevation gain: 947 m
🕒 Time: 3h 30m
🥇 Peaks:
🟢 Stenata (2028 m - The Wall – first time!)
🟢 Cherni Vrah (2290 m – again)
🟢 Malak Rezen (2182 m – also again, because why not)
✨ From Leisure to ‘Mira Mode’
After my last leisurely Vitosha wander — the kind where you stop often, chat more than you climb, and come home barely sweaty — I knew I needed to reset the balance.
Enter: a proper Mira hike.
Bigger elevation, longer distance, solo mode.
🌲 The Start: Forest & Foraging
I began at Bai Krustyo — intentionally starting lower down for a bigger climb. The reward? An entire first 1.5 hours winding through lush forest, the air still cool and quiet.
Every 100 metres, I stopped… not to catch my breath, but to pick giant, juicy raspberries. These were bigger and sweeter than the ones we’d found on our last hike on Vitosha’s slopes. Honestly, the forest was feeding me before I’d even earned the summit.
😱 The Rustle 🦌🐻
And then — plot twist.
From the dense overgrowth right next to the path came a loud rustle. The plants moved. Something tall, brown-orange, and furry flashed in my peripheral vision.
Now, unlike my UK hikes — where the most startling thing in the undergrowth is usually a pheasant with poor decision-making skills — Vitosha has proper big wildlife. We’re talking deer, wild boar, foxes, badgers, wolves… and even the rare bear.
My instincts skipped the “identify animal” stage and went straight to “get to higher ground now.” I powered up that trail like a caffeinated goat.
Was it a deer? I hope so. I think so. Let’s all agree it was a deer.
🚶♀️ Back to the Path
Once my pulse returned to something human, I stepped onto a wide trail and finally saw other hikers. A quick hello, a deep breath, and then — a detour.
Because why follow the main route when there’s a perfectly good peak I’ve never bagged just sitting there? Off I went to Stenata (The Wall) — first time, ticked!
Hikers do not care about the other peaks surrounding the highest one here. I been on these paths so many times, no one diverges from the big aim. So weird.
🏔️ Cherni Vrah & The Soup Stop
Back on track, I headed up to Cherni Vrah — again. At the top, the reward wasn’t just the view — it was a steaming bowl of homemade lentil soup and a cold beer.
Hiking fuel? Sorted.
🧗♀️ Boulders to Malak Rezen
From there, I couldn’t resist scrambling over massive boulders to reach Malak Rezen. Yes, again. No regrets. The rock-hopping was the perfect way to finish the main climbing for the day.
🏙️ Sofia in Sight
Through it all, there was one constant:
👉 Clear, panoramic views of Sofia.
My hometown, laid out below me, framed by the summer haze. Hiking here always feels like reconnecting with the roots that shaped me — the city that raised me, and the mountain that keeps calling me back.
💭 Final Thoughts
This hike had it all:
Forest solitude & raspberry feasts 🍇
A heart-stopping wildlife encounter 🦌 (we’re sticking with deer, okay?)
A brand-new peak 🎯
Comfort food at altitude 🍲🍺
Boulder scrambles & skyline views 🪨🏙️
Vitosha never disappoints. And as long as the berries keep growing and the city keeps shining below, I’ll keep coming back.
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