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
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.