Hi all - I think this is related enough to post, but I have to send a JMT resupply tomorrow and realized that my food for 2 people will not fit in a 5 gallon paint bucket - I'm really trying to avoid sending two. Any ingenious ideas for a hard sided shippable container that is 6-10 gallons? I think most restaurants only throw out 5 gallon buckets - if that was a thought. The only buckets I could find at lowes were 5 gal.

Thanks!

Chris

If you have a local beer and wine homebrew type of shop, they often offer some larger sizes of plastic buckets.

I've seen pickles come in 6 gallon buckets also (same diameter as 5 gallon).

Strap + tape 2 smaller buckets together, or 'stack' an extra 5 gallon bucket on the bottom and pack the food in the space between the bottoms...then strap + tape together.

Take note about the weight:

" What is the cost?

We will pick up your resupply bucket at the Lakeshore (Huntington Lake) post office and deliver it to the Muir Trail Ranch and hold it for you for $50 per bucket.

***It should weigh at most 25 pounds (11.3 kg).***

For additional weight, we charge $2.00 per pound ($4.40 per kg). For options other than mailing the bucket to us, contact us by email for rates."

This is from the MTR website:
http://www.muirtrailranch.com/resupply.html

We shipped food for five of us across the country to two locations using Rubbermaid or similar high-quality, tough storage boxes (the softer kind, not the brittle kind). We taped them well and had no problems.

We later picked them up so cost was not an issue. I'm not sure we would have used them if we would have had to leave them as they are are not the cheapest things around.

If it's going to Muir Trail Ranch, I believe it has to be in a 5 gallon bucket. I gotta send my tomorrow too...I'm a week late already!

Thanks for the ideas.

I thought about the rubbermaid, but worried about durability.

In the end, I just used two 5 gallons, with one stacked underneath and then taped together to secure it.