Big Seki 2016

Which canister you thinking of carrying?

I loved my REI Sahara until I wore it for three weeks straight on the JMT last June/July. It got abrasive after a few days and just got worse as the hike continued. It was too warm to wear a 150-weight wool short sleeve tee under it and (oversharing here) I ended up putting tape over my nipples because of abrasion. I hate that shirt now and refuse to wear it.

Since then, I’ve converted to Patagonia and Montbell solar hoodies which are 10000X more comfortable to me. Much cooler and softer than the nylon weave of the Sahara.

What about bugs? The Sahara didn’t prevent mosquitos from flying up our sleeves when we stopped. We hiked with two young ladies that had full mesh jackets with hoods and hand covers and we totally envied their setups. They were getting no bites while we were still getting bit wearing our (permethrin soaked) Saharas. I’ll rock this setup next time I am in the Sierra Nevada in June or early July.

I have the BV500–I haven’t tested it to see how many days of my menu will fit but I think It will be plenty big enough. I just couldn’t justify paying 3 times as much for the bearikade.

So far I haven’t had any bad experiences with the Sahara–it fits well and seems to be good protection, however it hasn’t been subjected to the mosquito swarms yet. Thanks for the warning though–I always bring some extra tape.

I have a large CDT and a Bearikade Weekender canister. Only fits in the pack vertically. Doable. but perhaps not comfortably. The rest of your kit needs to be a small volume. YMMV.