Owner Review by Colleen Porter

Owner Review
Bearikade Expedition MKII

September 7, 2005

Reviewer Information
Name: Colleen Porter
Gender: Female
Age: 30
Height: 5'8" (1.73 m)
Weight: 140 lbs/64 kg
Email address: tarbubble at yahoo dot com
Location: Orange County, CA
Backpacking Background: I’ve been backpacking for 10 years, usually with my husband. We used to be heavyweights, but having children forced us to go ultralight, and now on my own my 3-season base weight hovers around 13 pounds. On family trips the weight usually doubles. I just had my second child in June of this year and he is now 2 months old, plenty old enough to start backpacking. My typical haunts are the mountains of southern California, the Sierra Nevada, the Grand Canyon, plus the Mojave and Colorado deserts. Yup, gotta carry a lot of water.

Product Information
Manufacturer: Wild Ideas, Inc.
URL: http://wild-ideas.net
Year Manufactured: 2003
MSRP: $245.00 (US)
Dimensions: 9" diameter base by 14" length (22.8 cm diameter by 35.5 cm length)
Listed Weight: 2 pounds, 5 ounces (1 kilogram)
Tested Weight: 2 pounds, 5.3 ounces (1 kilogram) - including three stickers I put on it.
Description: From the manufacturer's site - "The Bearikade is a bear resistant container made of a lightweight composite sandwich. The Bearikade is easily opened by a human using the edge of a coin or other flat object such as a screwdriver blade. Animals, on the other hand, find it virtually impossible to open." The Bearikade is a cylinder made of composite carbon fiber and "aircraft grade" 60-61 T6 aluminum. The walls of the cylinder are carbon fiber and the caps at either end are aluminum. The top lid is removable and locks on at three different points, and the bottom cap is not removable. The Expedition model, the subject of this review, has a capacity of 900 cubic inches (14.75 liters).

Field Information: The Expedition was purchased in Spring 2003 and has been used almost exclusively in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, in central California. Elevations have ranged from 4,000 to over 13,000 feet (1,200 to over 3,900 meters). It has been carried in multiple types of backpacks (both internal and external), and has been exposed to rain, hail, subfreezing temperatures, and blisteringly hot granite. It has been buried under rocks, wedged between tree roots, and simply left on its own to fend off bears. I cannot recall the number of nights it has been used, if I count the trips I remember it adds up to at least twenty - but I'm certain the number is higher than that.

Review: There are several models of bear-proof canisters currently approved for use, and we opted to purchase the Bearikade Expedition for a number of reasons. For our growing family, we needed more capacity than other models on the market, and even in the Expedition size (Wild Ideas makes smaller versions, but the Expedition is the largest stock size offered) the Bearikade was still lighter than any other model on the market at the time, with almost 50% more capacity. The price tag was the only tradeoff, but we figured if we amortized the cost against the number of years we'd use it, it would be worthwhile. So far, we have no regrets about the splurge.

The most important thing, the purpose that the Bearikade was designed for, is keeping human food away from bears. So I'm happy to report that a bear has never gotten our food while we have been using the Bearikade. Now, you might say "But how do you know a bear ever even tried to get into your food?" We have camped in areas that were famous for their marauding bears. In Yosemite National Park, at Sunrise Creek, our site was raided by bears in the middle of the night. They dug up the fire pit, bluff-charged me, and stole my husband's empty pack (don't worry, we found it not far from camp), but they didn't get into the Bearikade. In Lyell Canyon, where bears have been known to leap onto tents in pursuit of food, the Bearikade sat undisturbed. I used it to cache food and left it under a bridge for three nights, then returned to find it unscathed. I wonder if bears have learned to leave them alone and go looking for easier targets.

The opening of the Bearikade is large, almost as big as the diameter of the cylinder (the lid housing intrudes a few millimeters), and makes for very easy loading and unloading of the canister. When we have needed to jam in as much food as the laws of nature will allow, this large opening is heavenly. Likewise, when we haven't packed cleverly and need to rummage at the bottom to find the precious peanut butter, the large opening is crucial to keeping our sanity. The inside of the canister is light grey, and as such isn't a dark, gaping black maw in which food disappears. It's pretty easy to find and dig out the food we are looking for.

We have used the Expedition pretty hard. We've dropped it and jammed it in tight spots, buried it under rocks and left it in the car to roll around as we drove. There are a few scratch marks, but all very shallow and they don't appear to compromise the strength or function of the canister.

There are a few caveats. The Bearikade is not waterproof - we found this out the first time it was used in a rainstorm. In the morning we had to dump out the food and dry off the bags, and anything that wasn't properly sealed up had water in it. My trail mix was ruined! So now when we put it out at night we set it upside-down, because the water leaks through the miniscule gap between the lid and its housing, but the bottom is tightly sealed. This way the Bearikade will only leak if a puddle builds up under it.

The lock system for the Bearikade is very sturdy, but does require some hand strength. There are three locks, which can be opened from the outside by using a quarter or a similar-sized metal washer. It is necessary to apply some strong torque, but even a weakling like me can eventually get it open. The same goes for locking it.

The lid is secured to the canister body by a short length of bead chain, which is sheathed in a plastic tube. This is a nice feature, meant to keep users from losing the lid. But on our Bearikade, the bead chain detached from the lid rather quickly and we promptly lost the plastic tube, which slid off very easily. The chain was easy to reattach, but kept detaching and was unreliable. I finally took a pair of pliers and crimped the chain's ball socket to keep the chain in place. When it is open, the lid can bang loudly against the side of the canister.

The large size of the Expedition sometimes makes carrying it a challenge. On a large external frame pack it's no problem, but for smaller internal frame packs it can take up quite a bit of space, which is why we eventually decided to invest in a smaller canister for solo and non-family trips. I did manage to carry it inside a 3400 cubic inch (56 liter) pack for a seven-day trip, but my gear load was very compact - silnylon tarp, down sleeping bag, alcohol stove, etc.

Summary: Worth the high price tag. This is a solid canister with only a few minor drawbacks. I would choose a Bearikade over any of the other models on the market (and I've used all the major ones).

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