Bear Canister capacity

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Wandering Daisy
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Re: Bear Canister capacity

Post by Wandering Daisy »

Bearikade weekender is 656 cubic inches
Bear Vault 500 is 700 cubic inches (not sure why they call it the "500")

If you can get 7 days in your Garcia, I would think you could get 9-10 days in the Bear Vault 500. I recall that the Garcia weighs as much if not more than the Bear Vault 500. And the Garcia plus Ursack would definitely weigh more than the Bear Vault 500.

I find that the Garcia's slightly odd shape makes packing it harder than columnar bear cans.

When I looked up the Bearikade data I see that they now have a new standard size called the Scout that is between the Weekender and Expedition capacity, as well as a smaller one about half the size of a Weekender.

As for the question about my Ursack- it is the old version without the aluminum liner. The food would get squished by a bear but hopefully not totally broken into and eaten. The Ursack is NOT rodent-proof. I hear that some rodents can chew threw it (specifically those in the Grand Canyon). So if you stash food in a Ursack to pick up later be sure to hang it off a rock or up where rodents cannot get it.
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longri
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Re: Bear Canister capacity

Post by longri »

Daisy, you misremembered what you saw. The Scout is the smallest Bearikade at ~500 cu in.

The smallest canister sold that I'm aware of is the Bearvault BV450 which is 440 cu. in. It's about the same weight (maybe a tad less) as a Bearikade Weekender but only 2/3 the capacity. It takes less room in a pack. I managed to fit 4 days of food in one once. I had to literally step on the food and press with my full weight to compress it all in there in order to get the lid to screw on. For this reason I never worry about a bear crushing my food in an Ursack.

Unfortunately the 13oz, 710 cu. in. "Hunny" turned out to be either an engineer's pipe dream or a kickstarter scam.
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Re: Bear Canister capacity

Post by Wandering Daisy »

Yes, Scout is the little one. The new size (between Weekender and Expedition) is called the Blazer.
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Re: Bear Canister capacity

Post by alpinemike »

Rogue has always told me that I eat like a slave or POW. So... given that I can fit with great difficult about 12 days of food in my Bearikade Expedition. I don't know how many calories I eat exactly... but it's around 1800 or so. I'm not the norm but that just gives you an idea of what I can do.
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longri
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Re: Bear Canister capacity

Post by longri »

1800 Cal? What are you, like 99 lbs?

A diet of 1800 Cal/day would leave me hungry while laying motionless on the couch.
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Re: Bear Canister capacity

Post by Wandering Daisy »

Some people simply do not have a big appatite when charging hard. I eat very little during the day because my digestion does not do well when I eat and walk. The issue is how much weight do you loose, over the long term. Most people get a "mountain appatite" after being out two weeks. If you do 10-day trips, then come out and pig out a few days, go back in eating 1800 calories, come out and pig out again, you could maintain a healthy weight. On the other hand, I suspect that if you stayed out a full month on 1800 calories, you likely will loose weight. The PCT hikers, who are out for months have to be very careful not to loose too much weight. They also do the "starve and then pig-out in town" method. The problem with loosing weight, is that inevitably muscle is lost as well as fat.

Personally, I do best when I eat simlarily both on trips and at home. I never "pig-out" when back in civilization. Over the season of many trips I may loose 5-8 pounds, which mostly consists of residual fat put on from Thanksgiving to New Years! Oh, those holiday goodies!
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Re: Bear Canister capacity

Post by markskor »

Maybe not the norm, but a few things learned from past adventures -
Like WD states above, for the first 4 - 5 days of my extended summer Sierra, I am not hungry. maybe its the change in altitude, exertion, pack weight, water, excitement...whatever, but nothing prepared (like FB meals), or dry (like Cliff Bars), or mushy (oatmeal) sound good. Power bars won't go down either... Mountain house varieties - yuck. I almost have to force myself to eat. Thus initially snack on jerky, dried fruit, granola, and candy bars...and lots of water... Maybe some sour gummy bears too. Somewhere around day 5 the appetite returns with a vengeance and then anything sounds good.
Thus now, on a typical 10-day adventure, plan/pack accordingly - (two tiered menu?) - first days small, heavy junk...(Dark Chocolate Milky Ways, jerky, pop tarts, and Crystal Lite). Then later in the hike, the pastas, rice... and lots more food.
However, this does not include fish, which always go down quite easily. YMMV.
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Re: Bear Canister capacity

Post by Lumbergh21 »

I have a BV500 and a BV450. I've used the BV450 for 7 day trips (or at least 7 days between resupplies) several times. It sounds like I choose many of the same foods as WD, but I don't divide them by day. I typically lay the can on its side and lay things in it length wise from top to bottom keeping my hunk of cheese in the middle for maximum insulation and finishing with the tortillas on top since they are round like the canister. Squishy items like dehydrated mashed potatoes, couscous, and trail mix get shoved in around more rigid items like the granola bars, salami, etc. I stay away from the freeze dried meals for 3 reasons: I don't really care for the flavor of the ones I've tried, I don't like the ratio of nutrition to the bulk, and I really don't like the cost, given how cheap instant mashed potatoes, cheese, knorr sides, etc. are. I aim for 2,800 calories and 100+ g of protein per day. I know I need at least that much protein and I know that generally I struggle to eat more than 3,000 calories in a day while hiking. I also plan my meals ahead of time so I don't have a lot if any extra food at the end of the hike. If weather happens, I can always ration a bit or just go a day without anything to eat at the end. Finally, I do not put everything with a scent in my canister with my food. I find it hard to believe that bears like drinking Deet or hand sanitizer. That's not just for room considerations, I don't want to take a chance of that stuff contaminating my food.
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Re: Bear Canister capacity

Post by alpinemike »

To answer the question of how much weight I may lose. One year over the course of 35 days I lost close to 20 pounds. I wasn't eating very well that year. Last year when I did 81 days I don't think I lost more than about 12 pounds. Pretty incredible considering we were out for almost 3 months. I do believe my metabolism is very slow and I tend to just burn calories very slowly in general, which I guess makes me really well equipped for backpacking.

I'm about 6 feet tall and average of 155 pounds.
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longri
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Re: Bear Canister capacity

Post by longri »

alpinemike wrote:One year over the course of 35 days I lost close to 20 pounds.
That's between 1000 and 2300 Cal/day, depending on how much of what you lost was lean vs fat body tissue. That you can cannibalize your body this way and still function well is a gift of sorts.

I'm about the same body mass as you. I'm planning a two week trip and I'm sure I will cannibalize my body to some degree. But I'll still need to carry way more than 1800 Cal/day. Probably I'll have about twice as much and it may not be quite enough by the end.

It would be nice if I could reduce the food weight but I know attempting to do so would be madness for me.

alpinemike wrote:I'm about 6 feet tall and average of 155 pounds.
Do you have an "alpine belly" or are you skinny?
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