Wednesday, April 24, 2013 – 23.8 km

For a trail that once had a warning about hikers needing maps and/or GPS, Four Peaks sure cleaned up well. The surface was clear and the footing good aside from a few eroded sections in the centre. I encountered a group of young people doing further trail work, but I was trying to make a decent distance today and didn’t stop to talk other than to thank them and ask what their huge satchel was for. Answer: a massive bear hang.

A sign at Pigeon Spring trailhead stated ‘There is no garbage service here. Please pack out garbage’. Who would have thought…? By the way, I saw a ‘Please pack out horse dung’ sign at Picketpost trailhead. Now that would be a joy for hikers everywhere.

From Pigeon Spring trailhead, the trail began a levelish trek along dirt roads. There were numerous campsites along FR422, but all were accessible by vehicle, which meant there was a 99% chance that at some point someone thought it would be an awesome idea to get drunk and break a bottle somewhere. I saw a few water caches, one that said ‘for hikers only’ and may have been up for grabs (I didn’t need water and thus didn’t investigate) and one that was hidden in the bushes. The latter was fun, like a chocolate egg in an Easter egg hunt, except that I wasn’t allowed to eat the delicious chocolate egg.

Finding a decent campsite, I settled in for the night.