[pct-l] dry conditions in SoCal

[Marion Davison]

Please take it all seriously when people tell you it is really hot and 
dry here.  It's the driest winter on record since they started keeping 
records in 1887. 
We did trail maintenance in Section C last weekend, from highway 18 to 
Van Dusen Canyon.  We removed four dead trees from the trail.  We 
removed three trees that had fallen but had gotten hung up and were 
hanging over the trail like the sword of Damocles.
We felled nine dead trees ranging from 6 inches to 24 inches thick, that 
were standing right next to the trail.  The irony is that we counted 
over 100 other standing, dead trees right next to the trail in that 
stretch.  It would be easy to spend a week just felling trees in this 7 
mile microsegment of trail.  The combination of drought and bark beetles 
is wiping out the SoCal forests.
We could not figure out how to get any water out of the faucets at Doble 
Trail Camp.  If there is a secret to operating these, and someone knows 
the secret, please tell the rest of us.  Caribou Creek was dry.  
Therefore, we found no water supply at all in this stretch.  Fortunately 
our llamas carried enough water for us.
As we drove home we saw running water in Cienaga Seca Creek. 
We met one thru hiker.  He is a big hefty guy who says he started early 
so he could lose weight before the pack catches up to him.  He told us 
that there were a lot of deadfalls between Hiway 18 and Mission Creek, 
but he couldn't be specific about any locations.
We will be spending several more weekends cleaning up tree obstacles in 
section C.  If you should be hiking any piece of trail and encounter log 
obstacles that need to be cleared, or any other trail damage, please 
report them to Pete Fish so he can send out a crew such as ours to 
remove them.  The  more specific you can be about location, the better.  
GPS coordinates are hugely appreciated. 
Marion Davison