Doh, yeah. I got the month wrong. It's as of today, 24-Oct-2024. There is a bridge planned for this area, but it won't happen until next year at least.

Regardless, use OSMCha to look at the changeset that I referenced: https://osmcha.org/changesets/158295326 . I recommend familiarizing yourself with OSMCha as it's useful to track down what changes broke things and for assigning blame when things get mis-mapped.

You can see the old path and it after my edit, which shows it now not connecting to the Paint Creek Trail.

The error in your edit was not confirming the physical state of the path before mapping it, and this resulted in a dead-end as folks trying to get to the PCT were directed down a dead end.

Please, when you are editing: validate your changes, even if it takes going there in person, to confirm that what you are mapping is accurate. Had you visited this location you would have seen both the gate at the start of the trail, markings that it's closed, and seen that it does not connect to the PCT.

Also, keep your changesets small. This change of yours was pretty large, and this also makes it difficult to track things down.