Hike of Kovach (Nalbant) and Sua Vapa Peaks

First summer hike of the year — on the second day of summer. We weren’t quite sure where to go, but in the end, we decided on Kovach (Nalbant) and Sua Vapa peaks, going up via the Yakoruda Lakes and descending toward Granchar Hut.

Not many people were eager to join this hike, so it was just the four of us — me, Lyubo, Mitaka, and Anelia. Around 9 a.m., we had already parked in the Nehtenitsa area, at 1970 m above sea level. That’s where our hike began, heading toward the Yakoruda Lakes..

It took us about 45 minutes to reach the lowest and largest of the Yakoruda Lakes, also known as the Fish Lake. We took a short break by the lake to snap some photos and, more importantly, to have a snack — the trail had been fairly easy until this point, but the real ascent was just beginning.

The trail to the upper lake, called the Dead Lake (Murtvoto), winds through dwarf pine and gets noticeably steeper. We paused briefly there too, before heading up the trail that starts at the far end of the lake and climbs sharply to the left. It’s marked with stone cairns. After the first climb, the trail levels out for a bit, then becomes steep again, finishing with an even steeper gully where there was still a small patch of snow — easy to bypass.

We took another break once we reached the ridge, and of course, took some photos of the snowy patch. At this point, our small group split up — Lyubo had planned to detour to Kurdzhilak Peak (from Turkish: "guardian of the forest," now officially called Strazhnik). Mitko, Anelia, and I continued toward Kovach Peak, which offers beautiful views of the Yakoruda Lakes below, and nearly the entire Rila range. Pirin was wrapped in clouds and haze.

We figured waiting for Lyubo at the peak would take too long, so we started slowly making our way to our next goal — Sua Vapa Peak. On the ridge between the two peaks, there are some shallow pools that still held water, though they usually dry up by late summer. We took our lunch break near one of them, next to a large snow patch.

The final climb to Sua Vapa is slightly steeper, but nothing difficult — again, it’s marked with stone cairns. Many hikers mistakenly call the peak “Sukha Vapa,” assuming it means “dry peak,” but its real name is Sua Vapa, which means “water peak” — sua comes from a turkish word for water.

We had planned to return to the main trail from Granchar to Ribni Lakes and descend to Granchar Hut that way. But just below the summit, we ran into three young guys, and shortly after them, Lyubo caught up with us. The guys had come up the gully from the Granchar side and said the trail was clear and marked with cairns. So we decided to wait for Lyubo to reach the summit and then descend via the same gully.

Now, I’m not sure if that was the right call. Climbing up such a rocky gully is one thing — going down it is something else entirely. It’s steeper and filled with unstable rocks. It may be more direct, but I don’t think it actually saves much time. It’s definitely more tiring and requires more concentration.

Still, we made it down safely to the lake and Granchar Hut. We stopped at the hut’s canteen to eat and have a beer. They have a great selection of beers, and the food is freshly prepared, warm, and tasty.

We had 5 km left to go on a dirt road back to Nehtenitsa. To make the end of the hike a bit more interesting, we took a short detour to Nehtenitsa Peak (2006 m) — a place even the locals haven’t heard of, though it’s marked on the map. The peak itself is just a grassy meadow, and right at the top there's a patch of dwarf pine, just enough to pretend it wants to block your way.

We covered the last stretch to the car in one breath, stopped at the spring with four spouts and a strong flow to fill up our bottles, and headed back down — into the summer heat of the city.