I took Baxter Pass (with a group of 4) last Summer for a July 4 hike. We started a little late around 0930am, and it was already hot. You park your car at the trailhead, which is a decent drive up the mountain and I forget what altitude you start at - probably somewhere around 6200'.
Baxter Pass is described perfectly by those posts above. We lost the trail at a stream crossing, stopped for lunch while some went in search of where we lost it, and got stung by the plants there at the crossing (stinging nettles?). A few more miles in, the heat rapidly transformed to a storm, dropped to 50 degrees, rain, a little hail, and a lot of lightning. About halfway up there is a really nice flat area wonderfully covered (I know they say not to stand next to a tree in a lightning storm, but I preferred a little cover than being 100% exposed at 10000ft). We ended up camping there for the night, and resumed hiking the following morning. I had thought that we would reach the pass in 2 hours, but it ended up being another 5 hour trek up to the top. This hike is not easy. The last 1500ft is straight scree.
The backside into Kings Canyon is nice, mostly downhill on scree at first, then a huge lake, then back into wooded areas. On the backside of the trail, some of those wooded areas acted more as a bog/marsh than anything (and we lost the trail again - look for cairns!) and the mosquitos were terrible, so never stop to look at your map without adequate bug spray already applied!
We reached the JMT/PCT around 1630, so it was an incredibly long day, and hiked north until 1930 where we found a viable campsite on the JMT.
The next morning we took Sawmill Pass out. The Kings Canyon Portion/Western Portion of Sawmill Pass was by far my favorite part of the trail. Woods Lake is a popular spot to camp/fish/hang out and I would love to go back to the same spot. Getting there is a pain though.
All in all, it was extremely grueling. There's a saying I had in my head that kept me going: "Once the blood dries and the wounds heal, you don't remember the pain, just the good memories" (or something like that).
