Bearikade Rental

[Matthew / BPL]

I’m planning a trip this summer that will require the use of a bear can. I’m thinking about renting a Bearikade from Wild Ideas. I’m slightly nervous about having such a key piece of equipment show up just a couple days before the trip. I’d feel better if I knew that some of you have had good experiences renting from Wild Ideas.

Please share your experience renting from them.

[Pedestrian]

SEKI rents Bearikades – an option to consider if your trip starts at one of those trail heads.

[Matthew / BPL]

Thanks for the suggestion but I’ll be entering via Inyo NF.

[M B]

Unless you’re going to try and cram 10 days food into a can that only holds about 7 there’s not much of a problem what’s your concern?  You got to really work to cram 8.

 

Honestly it’s easier to buy it and sell it when you’re done….. As long as you don’t live in California and have to pay sales tax.

 

I’ve only heard of a couple of people renting but theirs showed up on time or before.

 

 

[Matthew / BPL]

My concern is whether they ship reliably. I’m not concerned about my ability to play Bearcan Tetris or predict the volume of the food in the can.

I’ve thought about buying it and then selling. I might still do that. Thanks.

[Brad Rogers]

The people I have talked to that have rented have had no problems.  I bought because I wanted to do some trial runs with the canister in my pack to make sure it carried comfortably, especially since at the time (2011), I was using a frameless pack.

 

For what hat it’s worth – Wild Ideas originally did not sell canisters and was rental only.  I don’t think they really wanted to sell either but eventually gave into requests to sell the canisters as well as rent.

[Lori P]

I used to rent one by mail from them every time I did a trip too long to use the smaller bear vault. Never had an issue with them, they are very friendly and helpful. The wife told me the story of the company one time when I got nervous and called to see if it had been shipped.

Now I own one. No regrets.

[Matthew / BPL]

Okey doke! This all sounds good.

I’d been thinking about buying a Scout or Weekender but we are thinking of splitting an Expedition this summer as discussed in this thread. I doubt I’ll have much use for the Expedition outside of this trip.

Here’s the math on sharing an Expedition in case anyone is interested:

If we carry his BV450 (33 ounces) and I buy a Scout (28 ounces) we are carrying 61 ounces of bear can and we’d have 15.4 liters of capacity.

If we rent an Expedition (36 ounces) and share the can we get 14.75 liters of capacity with a weight savings of 25 ounces. We are both pretty psyched about that.

[BlackHatGuy]

You can use my weekender, but it sounds like you want the larger one.

[Matthew / BPL]

That’s very nice of you to offer, Doug. Thank you.

I do want more storage than a weekender for trip.

[Peter Lester]

I’ve rented Weekenders from Wild Ideas for two JMTs (last year and two years prior). No issues either time.

You can request that the Bearikade arrives a couple of days before you depart on your trip; Wild Ideas only charges for you trial days. If you are doing a thru-hike Wild Ideas will give you a discount.

[David Sugeno]

I rented an Expedition several years ago.  It arrived well in advance.  The whole process was very easy, and the company was great to deal with.  They’ve got this down, they are well-aware of the time factor involved in planning a backpacking trip.  I would have no qualms about renting from them.

[Author]

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