I just hiked this section at New Years as part of a group backpacking trip with the Tropical Trekkers, and based on our scouting of this section, they’ve moved the trail to make it less of a hassle for hikers. The mileage is slightly shortened if you’re passing through, with less encounters with bull pens (those of the cattle persuasion) and the Chandler Slough South campsite (unofficially called Tangerine Hill) is now down a blue blaze instead of along the orange blaze. Here’s the scoop from Jack Hailman, section leader:
1) Pitcher pump installed at the Yates Marsh campsite (thus solving the long standing problem of water there).
2) Bridge moved north of its previous location, I would guess from memory about 100 feet. This relocation causes only a small rerouting of the trail, hardly showing at the scale of the map.
3) The FNST in the vicinity of the Chandler South campsite has been rerouted to shorten the route, especially across open cattle pasture. The old legs of trail to the campsite have been “unblazed” and a new blue-blazed side trail made to the site.
4) Farther north, a relatively minor rerouting was done to avoid crossing a pasture where newly weaned cattle are penned in the spring.
Thanks for the update, Jack!
Good to see someone is tending the trail, and in this case, figuring out how to make the trail better. The best parks and trails have their fleet of regular users who keep it up and running.