[pct-l] Oregon Sec B update

[Deems]

Over MemDay weekend I hiked the full Oregon B section going north from I-5 
to Hwy 140. The water was plentiful and clean, the flowers were sprouting 
everywhere, and the weather was perfect. There were relatively few logs down 
on the trail, 60 total for the whole section, and a horse could have gone 
around each of them. The faucet handle at Fenced in Spring was gone, so I 
got water from the road culvert. Never saw the tub on Soda Mtn, but the 
springs were running clear and strong off the snowfields. The pump handle at 
Brown Mtn Shelter is gone, maybe the vandals stole the handle. I got water 
1/4 mile north at the road crossing. The snow was not a problem, but going 
across the Old Baldy northside snowfields proved a challenge in route 
finding. I stayed at Hyatt Lake one nite in the PCT campsite, and found the 
place very nice. The Pizza joint across the dam is open again, and the 
Worker Pale Ale on tap is great! Take a few minutes and climb up onto 
Wildcat Bluff overlook, I think I could see the South Sister from there. 
There is a forest thinning project going on right now near Howard Prairie 
Lake which is placing allot of down trees and limbs onto the trail. Then 
they have piled the slash into huge burnpiles beside and onto the trail, 
thereby blocking it. I've contacted the PCTA about it, and hopefully they 
will be moved. The skeeters weren't too bad, yet. The 1970s trail around 
Brown Mtn is one of the PCT's great trail building achievements. How they 
built the trail through the miles of basalt lavafields and carried in the 
red cinders to cover it kept me wondering for miles as I hiked along the red 
carpet.  Now is a good time to hike this section.
http://www.pbase.com/losthiker/oregon_pct