16 days of food in a Bearikade Expedition!?

[Jonathan Chin]

My 11 year old nephew and I begin the JMT on August 7th and are planning 8 days between the last resupply at Muir Trail Ranch and finishing at Mt Whitney.

So, I got the notion to try to squeeze 16 people-days of food into one canister (without cutting calories). This led to many strange ideas and spreadsheets calculating volumetric caloric density, etc.

I've learned that it totally is possible to squeeze 16+ days of food in the Bearikade, so long as I'm willing to eat lots of nut butters, chocolate, and a few dense carb sources (i.e., quinoa… with the space between grains packed with powdered cheese).

Anyway, I though of melting 500 gram chocolate bars and forming them to the inside of the bear canister (to eliminate the wasted space between individual squares of chocolate). Instead, I realized that by breaking the bars into even rows, they naturally curve just enough to match the Bearikade walls. Also, the bars are perfectly sized so 5 of them fit snugly along the inside wall of the canister (see photo). Thus, I can have 2500 grams of chocolate walls and stuff the center full of nut butter packets, cheesy quinoa, angel hair past, salami, oils, ghee, fruit, etc. Reveling in my BPL nerd moment here.

[Kenneth Keating]

Wow, that impressive. Do you have a list or photo of items you're packing? It takes me about 109 cubic inches to pack one days of food, so I would only be able to get a little over eight days of food into a Expedition.

[Jonathan Chin]

I'm budgeting 6,000 Cal/day between my nephew & I. Over 8 days, this comes to 48,000 Cal. The total calorie content of the food pictured & listed in the spreadsheet below is 49,460.7 Cal.

Spreadsheet with nutritional info.

Bearikade Expedition with all food listed in spreadsheet.

8 days of food.

To fit so many Calories, we'll definitely be eating a high fat diet (about 54% calories from fat, but I tend to eat a high fat diet anyway, so I'm not too concerned. Also, it would be nice to have more fruits & veggies.

Given that I'll only need to carry 7, not 8, days worth of food in the canister (as we'll be eating the first day's food before camping), I will likely switch things up to carry a few additional bulkier, carb rich dinners such as macaroni & cheese with veggies and thai curry w/ rice, chicken & veggies. Also, I'll be bringing some home made candied sriracha bacon that I forgot to include in the spreadsheet. I'll post the recipe and pics for that here when I have a chance.

[Alex Wallace]

"home made candied sriracha bacon"

DROOLING!!!

[Adam White]

My inner nerd loves this thread. Thank you for posting it. There's even a spreadsheet!

Also, very cool to get out with your 11 year old nephew–hope you guys have a great trip. At least you won't came back famished*!

From your photo–and this should probably be a separate thread–I think there's room on this site for a "Payday vs Nut Roll" discussion.

*Unless your food is packed so tightly in your bear can that no food can be removed, of course.

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