Cross country skiing on Hogan Park trail, Rabbit Ears Pass 2-14-2018

Following a day of volunteering with the National Sports Center for the Disabled, I head back up to Rabbit Ears Pass one more time and venture out on the Hogan Park Trail.  Another overcast day with sporadic snow.  i have this trail all to myself and don't see another person all day.  I inadvertently made this a much harder day than I anticipated.  As is the rule on Rabbit Ears Pass this trail passes through a number of glorious meadows and is up and down.  At the end of the first meadow I missed the next blue trail marker and instead followed a distinct track up (it turned out straight up) the hill...some folks had ventured up the hill built a snow pit and spent the night, but I worked my tail off going up that hill, only to come back down 45 minutes later (it was a fund ride down in the powder at least), where I finally found the trail again.  That ate up well over an hour, and just about did me in, but I ventured on through the trees and through several more wonderful meadows before turning around and heading back.  In theory you can take this trail all the way to the top of Mt. Werner and the Steamboat Springs Ski area 7.5 miles distant, but I suspect very few people go that far in a winter season.  The Rabbit Ears Pass area is renowned for this wonderful trail network, and the division of east half for snowmobilers and west half for snowshoers and cross-country skiers really works well.  The meadows are truly glorious, the snow is indeed wonderful, my only complaint is that most of the trails are within earshot of the highway for most or at least half of their lengths.