I will start with the bad. On the trail there is are several dog poops left. I hiked with my dog and bagged and packed his poop out as everyone should do. Also lots of trash left in coals of a fire at the lake, I packed this out, but there was some trash on the trail I did not have the room to pack out.

Now for the good. I hiked from the Hells Crossing trailhead, and hiked to Pleasant Valley Lake Trail and up to the first lake. On this route there were only 5 logs down all of which presented no issue to step over.  At the lake I caught several small cutthroat trout, no large fish appeared to be in the lake. Did not see another person on the trail or vehicle drive by 410 at the trailhead. That will change I'm sure when the pass opens.

I've had an interesting relationship with the South Lake having stocked it now for the last 10 years.  It's down to about an acre in size, but has a nice little inflow creek and despite being maybe 8 feet deep in a couple of spots, there were around 20 plus survivors from the previous plant, and they're almost impossible to catch in these conditions.  My hiking partner C and R'ed one healthy fish and that was it.  Unique spot a difficult half mile off trail, one decent camp site.  We like to walk the Pleasant Loop Trail from the Goat Peak Trailhead which is 2.75 miles to the intersection with the Pleasant Valley Lakes Trail simply because we like the walk along the languid American River and prefer not to make the river crossing-trail comes across from the road from the Crow Lake Way TH.  From the there the trail slogs up hill for a mile and a half, passing North Pleasant Valley Lake which has a self sustaining cutthroat population, fish are generally pretty small and is visited far more often.  At about elevation 4390, cut cross country to the South Lake using a variety of elk runs downhill into the lake-no obvious trail goes to it.  Mosquitoes were tolerable, sprayed down once leaving the pickup but were good for the day.  No sign of anyone having been there this year although it appeared someone had boned out an elk they had killed during last hunting season in an old camp site on the east end of the like.  Go in exactly 11 miles-included a side trip to the North Lake. 

Reached the Goat Peak trailhead off Hwy 410 at 11am, without any roadwork-related delays, and just as the previous hiker was getting ready to leave.

Headed up the Goat Peak Trail. Steady climb at a reasonable grade, no obstacles, but some narrow and exposed spots. Passed several good viewpoints on the way up.

To push the hiking-to-driving ratio over 1.0, I took the long way down, as described in this recent report. The trails were all well-signed and obvious, but there were quite a few blowdowns, especially on the trail between the summit and the turnoff to the Pleasant Valley Lake Trail. The lower part of the Pleasant Valley Lake Trail appeared to have been cleared out, at the cost of being a bit dusty from horse use. This was also the only part of the trail that crossed into (partially) burnt forest.

No issues with the Pleasant Valley Loop Trail. One or two easy to step over blowdowns, one easy stream crossing, and a few muddy spots.

Encountered only one party on the trail, almost back at the car, and two pairs of Navy jets. No bugs, or other wildlife.