How to pack a Bear Vault BV450 for a 5 day trip! www.packitgourm... www.rei.com/c/... www.amazon.com... www.amazon.com... www.amazon.com... www.amazon.com... www.amazon.com...
Try using an old expired credit card to help open your cannister. Just slide the card between the notch on the cannister and the two tabs on the lid and twist the lid open as normal. Very easy to open this way and works great even in the cold.
I was debating which size to get for myself and this video pretty much sums it up for me . I will get the size you’re showing here . And thank you for educating others on bear behavior. We need to protect ourselves and our wildlife . Awesome review !
Also, related: in the video I fail to mention that all your trash is required to be put in your bear can as well and packed out. Wrappers are stinky! Anywhere that requires these bear cans for your food and toiletries also requires its use for trash.
I have been using bear canisters for years, even places that do not require them. raccoons, squirrels, rats and mice are smart as hell, and have learned over the years how to defeat a bear bag. haven't had one get into my canister yet.
Yeah, we had to start using CDs on the bear lines to keep the rodents out of our food while hiking the AT! Worked great, but it is a very bad feeling to find holes in your food bag, cause then you have to get all new food!!!
@@josephrbroome I have heard of people using CDs ( mostly old AOL discs ;P ) but never tried it. I have had a bear can for decades, and find them well worth the weight. when I was in the ARMY, we would wrap our food in foil, which usually dissuades vermin.
"shaped like a hobbit but don't eat like one"...describes me as well lol. Great video, found it while looking at filling my cache for a week long trip. I really like some of thoughts in here (the day in and day out rationing plus spare didn't occur to me). Awesome.
I know it has been 2 years since you posted. Just watched your video, doing the JMT in 15 days. First 7 days, no resupply, so have to caring a lot of food. So your vid was informative. I pack my food by calorie count also, about 2400 a day. Mostly never eat that much everyday. I must make myself eat enough calories. But at resupply points and town, all bets are off I really put in some calories Thanks
For a NOBO thru hike of the JMT, you can stretch your food carry by using the bear boxes at some campsites: Rock Creek, Crabtree Meadow, Tyndall Creek, etc. This does require some careful planning and may require you to camp at more popular/ crowded campsites, so there is a tradeoff.
Hiking the AT next year and it’s looking like there may be a few more areas requiring bear canisters. Nice to know the 450 can support me. Thanks for the video👍
You can get odor proof bags so why not get a smaller one for the toiletries to create more room in the canister. Or just use toiletries with out any odor to them. Example ... Baking soda and salt for brushing your teeth. As far as the oatmeal you may want to try the Quaker Steel Cut Oats , the 5 minute cook ones. They pack small and light and you can season / sweeten them however you like your oatmeal. A small amount of them makes a good sized serving. At times I make a 50 - 50 mix of them and the 5 minute rolled oats. Less mess to clean up if you do the freezer bag cooking method.
just make sure the 500 fits in your backpack. I have osprey Atmos AG 50L and found out is hard to fit even the 450 in it, therefore I am looking for a 65L backpack.
Mentioned below somewhere, I carry my first aid kit in a small recycled tupperware container that I use to eat out of. Sometimes I use a 700ml titanium cup.
Curious what cookware you are using for those dinners and breakfast since you are doing away with the foil bags. Are you using a larger 1.8 liter windblower type cooking set or a a regular pot and just pouring hot water into them.
For that trip I used an MSR Pocket Rocket and 700ml aluminum cup. I keep my first aid kit and a few other odds and ends inside a disposable Tupperware container (the kind processed sandwich meat comes in). My cookware is just to boil water, the re-hydration takes place in the Tupperware.
Thanks for the information. My husband and I will be hiking together and not wanting to have to do a food drop more often than every 5 days, so we'd probably invest in the bigger one. But I'm a little concerned about how hard it is to find your food the next day if a bear has gotten ahold of it and batted it around quite a bit. Have you heard of people having problems finding their canister the next morning? Is there an idea situation to look for as far as a good place to wedge your canister where a bear can't move it too far away?
One great idea that I started following was to put a bell on the canister with a string around the neck of it. So if a bear starts batting it around trying to open it, it will make even more noise. Thus far, in all my experiences using them I have never had any issues with my food being rolled away but there are a few stories of it happening.
