Sep 20 2025

The official itinerary called for a (very) short hike up to Okoto Lake, leaving the hotel at 0930. We felt this gave us the window to head out earlier and do a longer hike. So Georgi arranged for our driver to pick us up at 7am so we could attempt it. It took us a few false starts to find the actual trail head. Once we spotted the bridge that we knew had to be there to cross the river we were on our way. Most of the trail was ankle turning rocky and uneven. Certainly not an easy hike. It became even more is a scramble at times as we progressed beyond Okoto Lake. The morning light on the mountains was stunning. At Frog Lake we decided we still had enough time to push up to the ridge. Well worth it as it gave incredible views of the surrounding mountains and lakes. There was an option to go a little further up to a col with two more lakes but we had reached our turn around time. Back down at Frog Lake we made the unwise decision to take the “alternate” path back down that went around two more lakes: Long Banderista and Ribno. The paint trail markings quickly disappeared to replaced by the occasional cairn as we scrambled town what was essentially a rock wall next to a waterfall. Beautiful but treacherous. How I didn’t do an ankle..?

This obviously chewed up a lot of time such that we made it back with 2 minutes to spare (for our noon deadline) just as everyone was ordering lunch. 

In the end the giant sausage kept us waiting. 

Not yet done the group walked down the narrow road to the 1000 year old tree that looked very much like Treebeard. 

And the day was still not done. It was back down to Bansko to fetch our bags (and a quick espresso) to head to the train station to board Bulgaria’s only remaining narrow gauge train en route to the outskirts of Plovdiv where we switched to a commuter train. 

I mean how much fun can we have in one day‽ 

Grubby and tired (but happy:) it was out for a quick sub par donair then back for shower and bed.