I think you've got an extremely low opinion of the interests and capabilities of people who do trips in your local area. That's odd, considering you've got a 2200-mile trail running right through your backyard, full of some of the most experienced and enthusiastic backpackers on the planet. The first time I ever heard of the Wind River Range was from a backpacker not too far from Sunfish Pond in NJ (beautiful!), who raved about the Winds and told me about this wonderful "sneak route" along the backside of a popular backpacking area.
I call it Erwin Syndrome. When Appalachian Trail thru-hikers start out, they're all tentative and nervous, or maybe a little overconfident and quickly get cut down to size by the rigors of the trail. But after a few weeks on trail, and a few hundred miles, they start to fall into a groove. This generally happens in the Erwin, TN area, plus or minus a state. Here's the thing though: that stage of thru-hiker development yields (by far) the most obnoxious, entitled behavior. People get drunk and trash hotel rooms, or get all high and mighty on their thru-hiker pedestal and talk down to section hikers, or whatever. Like teenagers, they've gained enough experience to have confidence, and gone far enough already that they feel they're special and important, but haven't yet learned the harder, more subtle lessons of humility that come not in a couple hundred miles, but from a few thousand miles. And some never learn them.
I had the pleasure of meeting a hiking legend last year at a hiker get-together, This fellow has walked over 50,000 trail miles, was the first to hike all 11 National Scenic Trails, and is a talented and prolific writer to boot. To say I was a little starstruck would be an understatement. And yet, when we spoke, he made a point not of talking about himself and all the wonderful things he'd done and was planning to do. Instead, he asked about me. And even though my goals were relatively modest, he immediately seized on them, talked them up, and made me feel like a million bucks. He could have easily dismissed or ignored my plans, instead dwelling on his (considerably more impressive) goals and accomplishments. But he didn't. He found beauty in my "local overnighter", so to speak. And if he can do it, what excuse do you or I have?
Finally - a surefire way to cure a rotten attitude like this? Get outside. Even if the overnighter is lame and stupid and terrible and full of uncouth losers who will never know the beauty you know and/or dream of. I suspect if you actually just bite the bullet and go on a quick weekend overnighter once a month in the warmer months, you'll find yourself amazed at how much better (supposedly) marginal backpacking is than no backpacking at all. Any time outdoors is time well-spent.
