Reviewer Information

• Name: Cora Hussey
• Age: 24
• Gender: Female
• Height: 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
• Weight: 150 lb (70 kg)
• Email address: cahhmc "at" yahoo "dot" com
• Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
• Date: August 3, 2004

Basic Product Information

• Year of Manufacture: 2004
• URL: http://www.imlaygear.com/
• Listed weight:
  • 15 oz (425 g) for the 6.4 L keg
  • 12.4 oz (352 g) for the 3.5 L keg
  • This was exactly equal to weight as delivered... wow!
• Listed capacity: 6.4 L (390 cu in) and 3.5 L (214 cu in)

This report covers the field testing performed from May to August, 2004. For more general product information, more visual details, and more reporting on appearance and structure, please see my Initial Report. For more varied use and long term care/maintenance comments, please see my Long Term Report.

Field Testing

• Trip One: Canyoneering in Angeles National Forest
  • Dates: June 19, 2004
  • Location: Angeles National Forest, California
  • Weather: Mostly sunny and warm, and a lot of waterfalls
  • Elevation: 6000 to 8000 ft (1800 to 2400 m)

  Description:
  I used the 3.5 L keg to protect and store my essentials while running the rather wet (3B III) canyon. The keg held my headlamp, warm hat, first aid kit, pocketknife, a copy of the route description, a thin long underwear top, and a few extra energy bars.

  Comments:
  During this trip, I was very rough with my pack, and all gear in the keg stayed dry and unsquished, whereas most of the rest of the gear in my pack did not fare quite as well. It is always nice when a piece of gear performs exactly as advertised, which these kegs did from the get-go.

  The biggest problem I had was the fact that I mistakenly put the hand-grips on the lid facing away from my back. This meant that they formed stiff bulges on the base of my pack. This turned out to be a serious issue. I butt-slid down about 3 ft (1 m) of slick granite, but the bulge formed by the handle protruded enough to wear a hole in my pack almost instantaneously. I literally heard the fabric wear away within a few inches and plastic scraping against the rock for the remainder of the slide. This was unfortunate, and especially surprising since the pack had three layers on the bottom, one of which was 500-denier Cordura fabric. The lesson: when the website says to be careful about the edges inside of a pack, I should have taken it seriously. It was completely my fault, but I was nonetheless frustrated, and learned my lesson quickly -- after that first finger-size hole in my pack I turned the handles in against the frame where they could not form very big bulges.

  Another issue I had with the keg was that it was extremely hard to pack in my backpack. I was using a top-loading skinny backpack which I had to wiggle and shove the keg into in order to get it to sit on the bottom. Even then, the bottom was curved enough that the keg could not fit very well and a lot of space was wasted. It did not bother me since I was carrying a big pack anyway, but it was kind of a pain to put it in and take it out. The bad fit probably also contributed to the unfortunate development of the hole in my pack.

  Overall, however, the keg performed nicely. Nothing inside got squished or wet. The lid was much easier to take on and off when I was being rough with it in the field than it was when I was being dainty with it in my living room. I liked the keg a lot, and determined to keep using it and its big brother out of enjoyment.

• Trip Two: Santa Cruz Island Camping
  • Dates: July 9-10, 2004
  • Location: Santa Cruz Island, California
  • Weather: Beautiful, 75 to 35 F (24 to 2 C)
  • Elevation: Sea level

  Description:
  I stayed on Santa Cruz island to do some kayaking, and brought my food along in the 6.4 L keg. The interesting tests that the keg faced here included salt water exposure, sunshine, and a small herd of wild pigs (the largest of which apparently weighed around 300 lbs / 136 kg) who tend to raid campsites and eat any unprotected food.

  Comments:
  The keg indeed thwarted the pigs. Our campsite and those near ours were raided during the night, but the keg remained in one piece. Overall, it seemed to be a great way to store my food for that lightweight (when compared to bears) protection. Also, when it came to day use, I could just throw it in the kayak hatch, and since the keg was overly large for the amount of food I brought it was easy to rummage around inside and find what I wanted.

  The one thing I did notice was that the keg would literally roll around in the hatch since it was the only thing in there. My dry bags tend to stay in place better and be less obviously (in both sound and feel) shifting from one side to to another. This was a minor annoyance, and more about surprise at the noise than anything else.

  As for the differing conditions, the salt water did not seem to affect the keg at all. The rubber ring stayed whole and smooth, and the plastic remains fine and uncorroded even today. The contents of the keg remained dry, and I appreciated having an extra seat available (provided by sitting on the keg) after removing my lunch from it.

• Trip Three: Canyoneering in Angeles National Forest
  • Dates: July 25, 2004
  • Location: Santa Anita Canyon, California
  • Weather: Beautiful, 80 F (27 C)
  • Elevation: 2000 ft (600 m)

  Description:
  This turned out to be another great canyon test. This canyon was a class 3A III, or a drier canyon than the first test on trip one. I used the 3.5 L keg, and packed the same items as on trip one.

  Comments:
  After getting over my initial delight at the kegs being both durable and waterproof, I began to assess their usefulness more thoroughly. On this trip, I loaded the keg into a more wide and flat-bottomed panel loading pack. With this, it was much easier to prevent bulges and also much easier to get the keg into the pack.

  However, I think I need some additional experience on efficiently packing the kegs. At first I thought I had become an expert in using up every last inch of space in the kegs. But then I began to realize that after those efforts of packing I simply did not want to have to unpack and repack the keg at all. I borrowed tape from a friend to cover a bee sting rather than dig my own first aid kit out of the keg, and I spread my mustard with my fingers rather than getting out my penknife. Granted, this demonstrates that (a) yours truly was probably equally as lazy as the keg was difficult to unpack, and (b) yours truly also probably needs some additional time to figure out efficient packing systems, but overall I was surprised at how much time was taken up by packing and unpacking the keg when I did need to get something out of it.

• Trip Four: Rock Climbing in Sequoia
  • Dates: July 30 to August 1, 2004
  • Location: Sequoia National Monument, California
  • Weather: Beautiful, 80 F to 45 F (27 to 7 C)
  • Elevation: 8000 ft (2400 m)

  Description:
  On this trip, I used the 3.5 L keg essentially as a lunch box. I stored all my squishables in the keg -- mandarin oranges, tomatoes, some cookies, avocados, a mustard squeeze bottle, some bread rolls, and similar items.

  Comments:
  Again, the kegs were durable despite my abusive attempts to prove otherwise. Again, I used the panel loading pack for improved ease of packing. And this time, I tried loading the keg loosely as I had done on trip two to improve the ease of packing the contents of the keg, and also to improve ease of general rummaging to find things. Thus, on this trip, I nearly found perfection. When I loosely loaded the keg in my fat, wide, and flat panel-loading pack, it minimized nearly all packing frustrations, inefficiencies, and general ineptitudes.

  However, I experienced a new advantage and a new disadvantage to the keg. The disadvantage was quickly discovered when I left the keg closed and in the sun with my fruit inside for about five hours. I opened it for lunch and -- lo and behold -- my cucumbers were already growing mold! The keg had become obviously internally humid from all the fresh produce inside, and everything was rapidly wilting or molding. I had caught it just in time (a little bit of mold never hurt anyone), and proceeded to leave the keg in the shade and slightly open for the remainder of the day, which prevented further sauna damage.

  The previously undiscovered advantage was that the top of the lid forms what turned out to be the best backcountry cutting board I've ever used. It is stiff, thick, and has just the right curvature to keep things rolling to the center rather than off the edges. It was wonderful! From this trip, I look forward to further perfecting my packing and my uses for these kegs.

Summary

So far, the Imlay Canyon Dry Kegs have proven themselves to be quite useful, and they have performed so far exactly as advertised. I regret not taking the warnings that they can damage packs quite as seriously as I should have, but such is life. They are a bit eccentric in that they only fit in some of my packs well, and take a bit of patience to pack easily, but in some instances I have found these tradeoffs to be worth it.

• Upsides for me so far:
  • Waterproof and durable as advertised
  • Good sizes for various items
  • Handle grips are comfortable and useful
• Downsides for me so far:
  • Fruit and perishables quickly get moldy inside on warm days
  • Must fit neatly in a pack to prevent holes from forming
  • A bit of a pain to pack in a space-efficient manner

Read more reviews of Imlay Canyon Gear gear
Read more gear reviews by Cora Hussey

Reviews > Stuff Sacks > Dry Bags > Imlay Canyon Gear Canyon Dry Kegs > Cora Hussey > Field Report