Last week I did a 5-day hike around the Rae Lakes Loop. No need for a TR - there's lots of info about the loop on the web. But this old dog did learn 3 new tricks.
(1) It rained and hailed hard all one afternoon. (The rest of the time the weather was good.) I have good rain jacket and pants - laminated, breathable, Gore-Tex / eVent type fabric. It kept me warm and dry - the rain didn't get in, the sweat did get out. BUT, I put my cellphone in the jacket pocket thinking it would stay dry there. The rain didn't get into it from the outside but my own sweat got into the pocket from the inside and got the phone wet. The phone is dead and I have to replace it. An expensive lesson. From now on, I'll carry a zip lock bag dedicated to keeping my cellphone / GPS dry.
(2) To repackage freeze-dried food or not? If I repackage I can carry more days' meals but I have to pour the dry food into the boiling water and then I have a pot to wash before I make my coffee or tea. On this trip I compromised: I left my morning meals in their original packages so I didn't have a dirty pot and could get on the trail a little faster. I repacked my evening meals to save space. I saw a women eating her freeze dried stuff right out of a plastic bag. I said, You can pour boiling water into a plastic bag??? She said you can if you use heavy duty bags. I just did a test in my kitchen and can report that you can pour boiling water into a Ziploc brand freezer bag and it won't leak and the bag won't melt. You'll need to have a way to deal with the really hot bag, and I don't know what, if any, chemicals leach into the water. So the question of repackaging or not is solved, for me at least.
(3) I commented to this same woman about her Wild Ideas Bearikade canister. She said she rents hers directly from Wild Ideas. She tells them the dates of her trip. They send her a canister in enough time for her to get it packed. After her trip she sends it back. The charge is $5 / day for the days of the trip only, not for the bookend days before and after. I broke down and spent the big bucks for a Bearikade this spring and I don't regret it because I have been backpacking close to 50% of the time since then. The Bearikade is clearly better than any other canister. But if I were only going to take a few trips a year renting one would make a lot of sense.
I hope this info is useful to you.
B,
