Steamboat Springs, Colorado is my most favorite place in the entire world. I'm really fortunate that I get to spend of lot of time there and I WILL live there when I can. When I was in high school I dreamed up this master plan... One day, I'll be back-country skiing there and find the CEO of The North Face in distress. Being the great doctor I am, I'll save his life in the woods. In return, I'll get free North Face for life! While the chances of that happening are slim to none, I do hope that one day I will be able to practice there!
Back to the adventure from last week. If you drive to steamboat from the front range, you most likely will drive over Rabbit Ears Pass to cross over the continental divide and descend into the Yampa Valley. There's nothing but fresh snow and trees surrounding the pass. I've spent time hiking the area in the summer and cross country skiing there in the winter.
Well this year I wanted to try something different. I wanted to do the Hogan Park Trail! Hogan Park Trail is 7 miles through the back-country that leads from Rabbit Ears to Mt. Werner (where the Steamboat Ski area is). I was expecting there to be some uphill terrain, we were on AT skis for on a reason, but seeing as you have to drive up the pass to get to the starting point I was hoping for some fun downhill sections. What goes up must go down right? Not exactly. It seemed as if most of the way was my dad and I trekking up the hill.
I was relieved to finally make it to the bottom of Morningside, the lift on the backside of the resort. By the time we got to the mountain I was exhausted. The trip took us just over 3 hours including a little stop for a snack and several water breaks. I got 3911+ on my NikeFuel for the trip. (That's better than I do on some days just sittingworking on the research grant, let alone 3 hours) Overall, the views and experience were incredible. I definitely want to do it again!!
If you've never been to Steamboat you need to visit, and if you like back-country skiing you should definitely try the Hogan Park Trail. (Make sure to heed the warning signs, we were prepared and have experience, but I can see how you might run into problems on stormy day if you don't know where you're going!)
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