Looks like we could hike 9 miles to the edge of the Big Slough Wilderness, then 4 miles back to Pond Camp, and it would be a 7 mile hike out in the morning.
Looks like we could hike 9 miles to the edge of the Big Slough Wilderness, then 4 miles back to Pond Camp, and it would be a 7 mile hike out in the morning.
I rather have a shorter hike out because I have to hit the road early Sunday.
Dang. Pond Camp is the closest one.
Ding a bit of research, and came across this.
He hikes the same basic route we're talking about, starting at the north end:The Four C Trail is a really easy trail to hike, with one issue. You need to supply your own water. The ponds and streams aren't safe to drink from even if you boil it. The water is contaminated with low levels of heavy metals and even filtering doesn't pull those out. In an immergency you'd probably be okay, but guzzeling liters of it is a bad idea. To hike the trail in cool weather you probably still need at least four liters of water along to drink and cook. More if you need to wash dishes. Now, that's a lot of weight to haul up and down hills. Luckily it is really easy to stash bottles of water along your path. The Four C Trail crosses several roads that connect the different trailheads so as you just stop the car, hop out and cache water near the trail/road intersection.
Road Crossings: CR 511-3, FS 526, FS 512, NF 517, CR 1175, Big Slough Wilderness Road, CR 1170, FS 536, HW 227, FS 521-E
If you want to stash water halfway (near the Walnut Creek Campsite) leave your water just off FS 511-2. It's about 1/2 mile from the campsite.
He says that Pond Camp is small with no facilities, but didn't stop. He gives a good description of Walnut Creek Camp but, IIRC, its closed.We started hiking from the north end and it took about four hours to get to the Walnut Creek campsite. This did include losing the trail twice. The first time the trail was following a logging road then takes a sharp right turn into the woods after crossing a bridge. The white trail blaze was gone so we continued walking to the end of the logging road. Grrr. Backtracking eventually got us back of track. A similar thing happened the second time. Several blazes were removed which lead us to wander some until we stumbled across a bridge on the trail. Basically, keep an eye on the map/gps.
Guess I'll strap on the 2 qt canteens.
So....did we decide where we are going to be?
If you ain't havin' fun, you're doin' it wrong
I think we're all on board with 4C Trail, just haven't decided where the start, middle and finish campsites are going to be.
Ok. I'm going to be coming out late Friday, so I'll be doing some night hiking. How far down trail is the first nights site?
If you ain't havin' fun, you're doin' it wrong
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