The dry lake (Suhoto Ezero)

As we could not pass the dry lake the day before, we decided to do a small hike to this place. But before climbing up there we visited the museum of the Rila Monastery. Then we took the bus to reach the starting point of our hike. The starting point is nearly at the end of the Rila valley and is called Kirilova Polyana (Kiril's clearing).

The path, which is in fact the pilgrim path from Samokov to the monastery of Rila, climbs in the forest and crosses later the slopes in order to reach the further moraine basin near the dry lake. During the climb, one sees some nice granite spires. Apparently it is on one of them that the first ascent was made by René Desmaison. He describes this ascent while guiding a client in his book "Professionnel du vide".

The dry lake is called this way because it is actually dry most of the time. It is only in spring, during the snowmelt, that it is filled. The lake level must be then quite high, given the signs on the rocks and the shores. Due to the facts that there are bears in the Rila range, I have tried to spot bear tracks in the lake. Alas, there were no bear tracks. Only tracks of cows and deers.

Along the path is also an engraving showing the limit of the forest of the Monastery of Rila.

There is also another path that goes down directly to Kirilova Polyana. It is not mark-signed but clearly visible on the ground. It is also mentioned on the bgmountain.org maps.

During that day, we were transferred to Bansko. On our way, we stopped at a demolisher's place. Although he apparently still works as a demolisher, he also has put his jumble in a nice way. The display is almost like a museum, even though it is dirty. But nevertheless it is very surprising and interesting.