This works with BBEdit's freeware sibling TextWrangler as well.
Folks might want to first copy the hosts file (I copied with command-C, then pasted right back into /private/etc/, whereupon hosts copy was created), so that if anything somehow gets terminally florfed in the editing process, it's easy to recover.
I will add that TextWrangler has an "
Open Hidden" item in its File menu -- which makes navigating to any folder (via the dialog box) quite simple.
Plus, the full path to the
hosts file was already given in post #1 (so "finding" it seems somewhat superfluous).
PS: TW's prefs can be set to save a (timestamped) backup, anywhere we desire.
[and yes, it also handles authorizations... so we can edit root-owned files.]