Gear Review: BearVault BV500 Food Container

I recently hiked in Desolation Wilderness (west of Lake Tahoe) on the Pacific Crest Trail, where a bear canister is strongly recommended. As I was hiking alone and had no desire to attract extra bear attention, I opted to invest in my first canister as I know I have future hikes that will require one, and after reading other reviews online decided to go for the highly recommended BearVault BV500 despite the extra weight.

I underestimated the size of the canister. It is HUGE! Good and bad. It holds a lot, but definitely was more spacious than 4 days worth of food and extra weight. It also didn't fit as easily into my pack as I hoped and was hard to pull out when weighted down.

Because it was so large, I was able to put additional gear inside which is great for waterproofing items such as bed time thermals and extra layers.

Check out my video for the whole scoop. I'm looking forward to trying out the BearVault BV450. It looks to be the same circumference at 8.7 inches across but is only 8.3 inches tall instead of 12.7 inches so my goal is to see how it fits side ways in my pack vs vertical. It will also saves me 8 ounces of container weight - and even though I used it too store more gear, a stuff sack would be lighter.

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