Waymark Lite 50L or ULA Circuit ( Ultra400 )

I’d pick the ULA. The Waymark hipbelt sizes are a narrow-ish range, less volume, etc. Let’s see what others say.

When I hiked Guadalupe Ridge a while back, I had to carry all my water.  I used an HMG 4400 Southwest pack and it performed admirably. It handled the load well and was as comfortable as a heavy pack can be.  There is a way to add load lifters to it, but I didn’t do that and still found it worked well. I also used it in Big Bend due to carrying water.

My favorite pack is the Circuit. My old one was really old, with holes and aging straps. I bought the new material version and have used it on 2 trips. It handles just as well as my old one. Probably the main reason I love this pack, is its ability to handle heavy loads , or compress it down for lighter loads. On these two trips my pack weight was 32 lbs, and it was very comfortable. On my old circuit, I had it loaded to 42 pounds for  week long trips with a bear canister. Although not particularly super comfortable at this weight, it could handle it. The padding on the back, seems to direct the sweat down towards the bottom of your back, which gets very wet, and does cause some irritation and itching.

Throwing the Atom Packs Mo out there. I just replaced my 10 year old HMG 2400 Windrider with one. After using the Mo on two trips, I should’ve replaced the Windrider a long time ago. Main problems were it had shoulder straps sewn too close together so it rode more on my traps and minimal padding so it bruised my hips. With dual pull hip belt, load lifters, and more padding on the Mo, I can get the proper wrap around my iliac crest and shoulders so no more sore shoulders or bruised hips.

Everyone I hike with that has a Circuit absolutely love it – and may be my next pack.  But I also have the HMG junction 3400 (picked up here used a month or two ago) and so far I am loving it with the tall torso fit.  I haven’t used it with a bear can yet (midwesterner here).  I don’t know much about waymark, but I do know their darksky 18 will be replacing my old day pack around christmas (hopefully).

My experience using a rented BearVault in a Circuit was that it didn’t fit horizontally in the pack, so I ended up carrying it strapped to the top (empty, food inside the pack). The OP doesn’t state which bear can, but if I knew that I was always going to be carrying one (and a chair, and sometimes lots of water), I might consider the ULA Catalyst (highly rated by PCT hikers in the yearly surveys) or one of the load-hauling packs from SWD.

If carrying a bear canister regularly, the Nunatak Bears Ears is a great pack, particularly the framed option.