What's The Most Food You Can Stuff Into Your BV 500?

[maverick]

I would be interested in knowing what is the most days of food you have been able
to put in your BV 500?
I can put 7 days of food in one especially now since I try too eat enough calories
right from the beginning of my trip so I do not come out looking like I have been
starving.
I am thin enough to start out with and do not like loosing to much weight on my
trips, but obviously depending on the length of the trip this is not all ways
possible.

[cgundersen]

Hi Mav,
I've not used the BV500, but it looks smaller than the "expedition" size Bearikade. The Bearikade is advertised as handling ~9 person days of food, but my wife & I manage to get ~12 person days worth (along with sunscreen/lip balm, etc) into one. If we each carry one can, that defines the upper limit of our time out. Obviously, dumping each can in favor of 2.5lbs more food would be nice, but aside from the regulations, we've occasionally been forced to camp much lower than expected (3 days at Hamilton in June!!!), and I feel lots better having a can. I guess the accompanying question you could ask is: what's the most power-packed/densest food you can "bear" to live on in the Sierras? Irrespective, like you, my wife & I always seem to run a calorie deficit up there, but she loves coming out leaner (and then eats like a horse when we get home).
CG

[ERIC]

I've not used the BV500, but it looks smaller than the "expedition" size Bearikade.

Yep. The BV500 is ~200ci smaller than the Expedition.

[rlown]

ok, i had major problems fitting stuff into a rented garcia. I had an extra stuff sack of food. I looked at the BV, and it's ok for some. I went with a 12" bearikade, as it allows me to sit at a reasonable height if i desire to ( weekender too short; expedition too big), and i can open it more easily. I can now fit everything in for a 7-9 day trip ( except for my sourdough rolls for lunch.) Those stay in the pack, until the first meal and then i can stuff them in the bearikade.

I'm thinking it depends on diet/food choice. I tend to shut down on eating at altitude, and only force myself to eat because i know i have to. lunch is the best meal for me to regain stamina, but it's also a good thing i like fish for dinner.

[SSSdave]

Not sure asking about number of days is a useful question. A container has a certain volume. Packing it with denser food will obviously result in more days of food. For instance if one stuffed PowerBars as tightly as possible in such a container with a sledge hammer, it is likely one could maximize the amount of days one could stay out on a trail. However that would be so boring. (Plus you'd need to bring a crowbar along to pry them all out, haha.) Also on a thread at another board, a high percentage of backpackers admitted to regularly having eating problems anytime out on the trail such that they didn't eat much. Something to do with the exertion or something. Like its their chance to lose weight or such. Pathetic I though! Well until they returned to the trailhead and pigged out at the first restaurant they came to. Those I backpack with and this guy are quite the opposite, eating lots of food. And lots of variety. Usually our main meal while base camping is at noon cuz were too busy late in the day.

Typical is what I made one day last week at Desolation. A whole package of Idaho Butter & Herb potatoes (contains 4 servings... or enough for one hungry skinny old mountain dude) and added in one of the 2.x oz Startkist tuna fish packages. Afterwards feeling like el bloato, took a 2-hour nap below a shady hemlock on my sleeping bag while wearing a skeeter head net. A reason I dislike Garcia's is that I can only get about 5 or 6 days worth of food I prefer to eat in those containers and that taint much of a trip length.

[quentinc]

I also have a Garcia and 4 days (3 nights) is my absolute max, which sucks (guess I need to try a Bearikade). And I'm one of those people who comes out thinner than when I went in!

[obiwan canoli]

I have to chime in and vote for the Bearikade... I was able to get 9 days in mine, and repackaged virtually all of its contents beforehand. I probably would have been able to take 11 days, as I didn 't pack the first day's food ration in my pack, putting everything smelly into the can.

It took a few tries, about 4 I think, and I had to sit on the lid to close it up, but I like the size, just right for me. And if I'm joined by a friend, between us, we can generally plan on a few more days out.

That could come in handy for next summer's planned JMT hike, as I'm hoping to do Whitney from Muir Ranch. If not, then will probably insert from Roads End and Woods Cr., and the Bearikade should be more than ample for these last two options, eh?

I'm going to practice all winter!!!

[paul]

The most I ever got into my BV was food for 2 people for 4 days. However, I did not repackage any of my Freeze-dried meals, which will definitely save space. I now have 2 bearikades - weekender and expedition - and using both of those I was able to get 9 days for 2 people, leaving one dinner out for the first night. That was for me and my son - if it was just me and someone who eats what I eat, I could have gotten a couple more days in there. That was with repackaging the FD dinners.

[fishmonger]

if you fill that entire BV500 with Olive Oil, you got yourself 93,000 calories

[balzaccom]

We have two Bearvaults...the 450 and 500, I think. The smaller one is fine for long weekend trips. We've used it for four days by really packing it tight, taking all of the freeze-dried meals and re-packing them in baggies, etc. And by four days, I really mean three days of dinners; four hiking days. We can stretch that a bit by carrying the first night's dinner outside the BearVault...The 500 gets us to a week, using the same techniques.

That's for two people. If we each carried one, we could obviously manage a lot more, but we usually don't do that. WE try to stay under 55 pounds, total between the two of us. That means I carry 35 pounds and my wife carries 20.

WE've been really happy with these things...and we use them everywhere, not just where required. Then again, in 28 days of backpacking in the SIerra, including more than a week in YOsemite, we have seen exactly one bear--and that one ran away when it saw us at Rancheria Falls in Hetch Hetchy...