Frozen Bikepacking - Riding the Peaks & Plateaus

Rob and I are headed back to Utah this Thanksgiving (2022) for a two week excursion. Riding the Peaks and Plateaus route is one of our key objectives. Immediately upon arriving in Utah, we ended up changing our itinerary, it was uncharacteristically cold so we ended up doing a backpacking trip in the Needles first, hoping for some warmer weather later in the week.
We had a lot of fun on this route. I really enjoyed the section through Lockhart Basin and I liked Steelbender (even though it was a lot of hike a bike).

Bike Set up:
Rob and I both rode hard tail mountain bikes with 120mm front suspension and 2.6 tires front and rear. In my opinion, this is the optimal bike for this route. Steelbender and Lockhart Basin have some chunky terrain and the bigger tires and front sus provide a more comfortable ride.