Where and when: McKee Draw to Hayden Pass (westbound), first few days of September
What temp range and weather do you expect: 40F-70F, high exposure, potential multiple daily thunderstorms, hail possible, worst case heavy rain and/or below-freezing conditions
Goal Baseweight (BPW): somewhere ~6 lbs, I’d be willing to add stuff
Budget: <$100
Non-negotiable Items: nothing’s non-negotiable but not enough time or money to make major changes
Solo or with another person?: Solo
Additional Information: I’ve backpacked the AZT/PCT/CDT with similar kits but never in Utah outside brief peakbagging trips in the La Sals. I’d love to skip to Leidy TH. I’d enjoy meeting like-minded hikers but am comfortable alone. Considering adding a small cook kit to give me something to do if/when riding out thunderstorms
Lighterpack Link: https://lighterpack.com/r/262b1g
Hey so just got back from my UHT thru! Nights were pretty chilly the first full week of August, getting down to 37° one night, but the rest staying between 40-43°. Wife and I referred to the first 25 miles from McKee Draw to Leidy as Mirkwood because it felt like it just did not. Stop. Going. On. Would start at Leidy if I ever do it again. We got hailed on day two and three. First bit of hail came at a spring between McKee and Leidy (which if you do decide to do the whole 104, I’ll find the coordinates which really helps on the water carry). Second but of hail came while on Gabo pass. The thunderstorms were pretty intense, but mostly missed us until night 6 when it rained hard and thundered about as hard as I have ever heard it for about 5 hours.
Gabo pass still has lots of snow and is the only pass with as much snow (dead horse pass has some on the eastern side but it is right at the bottom and on a flat part), though I don’t know how much will be there by early September. We decided to stick to the Highline and when we got to the snow, it was impossible. We decided to scramble up a couple hundred feet to a smaller part. We were not the only ones to do this as we saw multiple trekking pole marks and some pretty faint steps in the snow. A guy we played leap frog with that day watched us and thought it looked pretty sketchy so he took the left tail (that guess next to late Wilde) which he said the snow crossing wasn’t terrible there as it was mostly flat. The snow had a good texture to it though and the crossing was actually pretty easy, just hella precarious, so you may want to get updated trail reports closer with a focus on Gabo.
Other than that though, most of the trail was fucking fantastic. The Rock Creek area, mostly the 1.1 mile trail after the creek crossing (going east to west) was a pick your own adventure, but also the mile or so of trail before the creek (though there were still Cairns for this section as well as pink ribbons every so often). All the fire damage and blow downs made the trail virtually none existent after the creek. It took us a bit of navigating and checking caltopo to make sure we were still headed in the right direction. If you can, would definitely suggest making it to the flat spot right before Rocky Sea Pass, no fire damage there if you plan on making camp around there.
We were also pretty grateful for having the ability to have a hot meal but that is a personal preference too. We took 8 days to do it and I just wasn’t as hungry as I thought I would be.
Lots of marshes where the feet got wet multiple times per day. Socks were able to dry out the next day though (brought two to walk in and one to sleep in).
I am planning on doing a more detailed write up but just wanted to get these thoughts out quick. Let me know if you have any other questions!
wow @[email protected] thanks! i really appreciate the detailed feedback, wish i could give you more than an upvote. i will pay closer attention to Gabbro Pass and the Rock Creek burn area. it was a 160% snow year so it tracks that the melt is behind schedule, one of the reasons i am going so late. do you think it makes sense to try to go around the burn or is it just more straight-forward to push through it? conditions sound about right, glad to hear you didn’t suffer too much 😀 were you tempted to bag Kings Peak? how many other people did you see? and how did you manage logistics? would love to skip to the “good stuff” at Leidy TH, I know most people shuttle their car between trailheads but i’m flying into Vernal. looking forward to your proper trip report 🙂
I would say it’s worth it to push through for sure. It probably only took my wife and I about 45 minutes to find out way up from Rock Creek (a 1.1 mile section so it was slow going, but if you have a map ready to go it’ll be easy enough to make sure you are going the right direction). You can definitely tell some of the places have become “unofficial” trails to get around the larger portions that are all bunged up just from everyone taking the apparent easy way around the difficult sections (just gotta look for the signs which you will become very accustomed to throughout trail).
Since I was with my wife, we didn’t do kings peak. It would have been nice but the day we did it the clouds were building and the wind was zooming. Lots of people doing it though. That was the section we saw the most people too. The rest of the trail it was really low people, like maybe 10 doing the opposite direction, 4 doing the direction we were, and one group of trail workers just after gabro. Then after Rocky Sea pass we started to see A LOT of people. Almost overwhelming. And all smelled super good compared to us by that time lol.
Logistics wise, we rented a car and booked a shuttle with Mountain Trails Transport. Not sure about their service to Leidy peak just from what our shuttle driver mentioned (it’s rather rough road). Our shuttle driver was Amanda and she was super helpful and responsive. It was $150/person from Hayden to McKee Draw so really quite reasonable to not have to deal with renting another car or driving back to the other trailhead the day we came out.