This is a nice hike on the Bistra mountain in Mavrovo National Park of approximately 14 km with 800 m ascent that takes you to the Sandaktash Peak (1981 m). The hike starts in the village Nikiforovo.
In the village Nikiforovo you’ll pass a World War II monument and the Church of St Pantelejmon which dates back to 1867. We visited the church on our way back.
Soon you enter a forest trail and the first spring which is dedicated to the first meeting of the Partisans groups that took place here during WWII. In the vicinity of the spring there is another monument slightly off the trail. It’s well hidden and we only noticed it on our way back. The monument is also dedicated to the first meeting of the Partisans if I understand correctly.
You keep following the forest trail until you exit the forest after about 3 km. Shortly after you’ll pass a second spring (constructed in 1987). From this point to the point where the track spits was pretty overgrown and you may have to find your own way through weeds and bushes, because the official trail, if any, was hard to find.
After crossing a 4×4 dirt track, you’ll head towards a sheep farm. The sheep were out, and there were no large dogs to consider. You’ll follow a 4×4 track past the farm for less than 1 km after which you leave the road and go for a freestyle climb up to the Sandaktash peak. There are some good views of Lake Mavrovo.
After the Sandaktask Peak, head directly to the second peak which is almost as high as the Sandaktash Peak. We deviated a little bit too much downhill when following the original track (https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/nikiforovo-sandaktash-nikiforovo-37372255), so save yourself climbing back those meters and head directly to the next peak.
From there it continues freestyle downhill, which was a bit difficult due to the high grass and we were getting pretty tired.
Next, we had to find our way back through the overgrown part back to the second spring, which was much easier as we tried to follow the trail we made earlier.
Back in Nikiforovo we visited the Church of St Pantelejmon, built in 1867 and according to a sign on the church restored in 1927.
This hike turned out to be a bit more demanding than expected, possibly due to the hot weather in summer 2023, some overgrown parts and high grass on the parts without a clear trail. It nevertheless was a very pleasant and diverse hike with good views. It gets 4 out of 5 stars.
Note that is required to buy a ticket when you go hiking in Mavrovo National Park. This can be done online (https://npmavrovo.mk/tickets) or in person at the Information Point just outside the village Mavrovi Anovi (location: https://goo.gl/maps/vKJyEXSjDrhDn2V5A). In 2023 the price was 30 MKD (0.5 Euro) per person per day.
You can view and download the GPS track of this hike here: https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/nikiforovo-to-sandaktash-peak-in-mavrovo-national-park-144811077
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