Have not used the Weekender but have gotten 9 days of food for one person into the Expedition, with careful choices (high fat, low volume foods, all repackaged, budgeting 1.5 pounds of dry food/day). You might get 10 days in, but that would be the max.

For all of you storing dehydrated meals in ziplock bags: do you rehydrate in your cookpot? Isn't it a pain to clean it out? I'm imagining rock hard dried cheese all over my titanium pot. Do/can you bring empty bags to pour boiling water in with the meal? I'd think it'd be easier to store the cookbags separately (outside of bearcan).

I have squeezed (just for an experiment) 6 days' food for both my dog and me in the Weekender. That took a lot of squashing, including breaking up my dog's kibble! I left out the first day's food, since it doesn't have to be in the canister (unless you're going to go away from camp, leaving the food alone, before you eat the first night's dinner).

You want really compact food, such as couscous, rice, quinoa, etc. (Substitute couscous for other pasta.) No crackers or other fragile items. No bulky packaging, and remove as much air as you can from plastic bags. Don't vacuum seal, though, because that leaves the food a hard unmalleable brick. You need malleable items that can be squished into every possible open space. You then push down really hard as you pack each layer of food inside. Be sure to pack the second days' food on top so you don't have to unpack the entire canister for the second day's food--you'll probably not be able to get everything squashed back in! After that, repacking won't be an issue.

I've been able to get 3 days' food for 4 people (2 of them of elementary school age, though) into the large Bear Vault (about the same size as the Bearikade Weekender), which amazed the Olympic NP ranger who gave us our permits. What I didn't mention was that this didn't include the s'more ingredients, which I stored in a heavy plastic jar the first night. Of course on the Olympic NP coast the danger is aggressive raccoons rather than bears. I since bought the Weekender for these beach trips because the kids now eat a lot more, so the marshmallows, etc., are now carried legally! However, with their dad carrying most of the food, my Weekender contained only the light fluffy stuff, which only half-filled it.

Edited by hikinggranny on 03/14/2012 15:34:23 MDT.

Hmmmm, I too have been cogitating over the bear can delema for a JMT hike this summer.

I like Bob's idea of the 100 cu in box. So, since I'm too lazy to make my own box, i just measured the USPS medium size "if it fits, it ships" box, which is a very common mail/bounce box i have used to re-supply and judgling from the amount of such boxes being held in P.O.s, i think a lot of other hikers do so as well.

That box is 12"x12"x6" or 864 cu in. I know that when I sent one fully loaded to a re-supply point, i ended up not using half of what I sent and i still managed to resupply for 7.5 days out of half of it or 432 cu in.

based on each website, the cu in for each can is -

Wild Ideas - Weekender = 650, Expedition = 900
Bearvault - BV450 = 440, BV 500 = 700
Garcia BP model 812 = 615

So that means 432/7.5 = 57.60 cu in needed for 1 days worth of food. Conservatively estimate 10 days as the longest time between resupply, thus - 10 x 57.60 = 576 cu in size can needed.

So for me, i think either the WI Weekender, Garcia #812 or BV500 is probably the right choice for size. Which amazes me given the estimates other people have posted that the WI weekender would only hold about 6 days worth of food. I guess to be on the safe side I should go with the BV500, if I buy my own or just rent the the Garcia #812.

Any flaws in my logic? feedback??

mahalos!

I just checked my 2011 trip info and found I had 7.5 days of food in my Bearikade Weekender. I pack about 1.75lbs. of food per day. A lot depends on the type of food you're packing. I haven't found it necessary to use a hammer yet but I don't carry freeze dried meals anymore. It's amazing what you can do with a dehydrator. One trick I learned was to put a pinhole at the top of all the plastic bags. Trapped air can suck up a lot of space and a pinhole can solve that problem. Won't the bag leak when you pour water in for re-hydration?--not in my experience as long as you keep the bag upright.
The Bearikade people will make about any size canister you want. The problem is the in the sierras the Weekender and the Expedition were the only models approved for use when the Sierra Interagency Black Bear Group (SIBBG)did the testing. I doubt you would be called on it by a ranger if you had a "non approved" size. Bearikade also stocks a model called the Scout that's 9"x8" and 1.75lbs.

"I doubt you would be called on it by a ranger if you had a "non approved" size."

I've never had any negative comment from a park ranger on my Bear Boxer, 1.6 lbs.

--B.G.--

Hello,
Well However if you really want to squeeze six days of food in the can then you need to keep the daily amount down to about a pound and a half, use compact food such as gorp, oatmeal, rice etc, and throw out any packaging. It can be done but it takes some careful planning. ...

Here is how you get extra days out of your cannister and backpacking meals. Repackage everything in Zip Locks, focus dehydrated meals for two and use the rice meals, as you divide the meals up add rice instant to it and pack. every layer shake down with cous cous loose in the cannister. Organze the meals to take them out in order and eat the cous cous for lunch as you pull the meals out. The cous cous will shake into every crack and airspace. This method should give you eight days. Or more depending how you eat.

Edited by phatpacker on 08/22/2012 23:07:17 MDT.