Look up the dimensions of the can you are renting. Build something of similar size out of cardboard.Originally Posted by blue indian
If any company has coverage in fringe areas, the smart money is on Verizon.
Wayne
I called Mammoth welcome center to ask, the lady said AT&T "should" work. But Im not relying on that. Just curious if anyone has actual experience using At&T along the trail
Smart idea...
However I am still waiting on some food items to arrive.
Im going to rent a Bearikade cannister. Trying to decide between the Scout and Weekender.
Do not count on ANY cell service.
On top of donahue pass you are line of sight to mammoth cell tower. After that...read above.
There is att on shore of lake edison too @ vvr.
You may get faint signals on top of passes. Those towers are 15-25 mi away or such. Maybe you get text out, maybe not. The jmt doesnt stay high though, so 99% of time expect zero service
Last edited by MuddyWaters; 07-17-2018 at 16:28.
Fear of not knowing how much I could pack in a bear canister is one of the reasons I decided to purchase a Bearikade Expedition (then sold it at the end of the trip... the loss was about equal to what it would have cost to just rent).
But then, once I had the canister in hand, I never got around to figuring out how to pack everything into it (but purchasing ahead of time allowed me to fill it with the same amount of dead weight the food was going to be, and I realized that my back pack was NOT going to handle a 20lb bear canister... bought an Osprey Volt 75 to hold all my gear and the canister inside it).
What I did do, at home, was to package things as small as I could... repackaging things that were in packages that were simply too large (such as canned roast beef... pulled those out of the can and vacuum sealed it with an oxygen absorber) and removed excess air where I could (pre-packaged beef jerky and pre-cooked bacon, I would cut a small slit near the end of the package, push out the excess air, and then quickly reseal the package using a knife-blade-like sealer.
Never got around to trying to pack the bear canister until I was on the trail. It took two hours of trial and error until I finally figured out the process about how to organize my food to fit in the canister... don't organize it.
I simply pulled one day supply of food to the side. Everything else I wanted in the bear canister was placed anyway the things would physically fit together without leaving ANY space. I then placed the one day supply at the top of the unorganized mess in the bear canister. Each night, I repeated the process... set aside one day supply, package up everything else with no organization, but tomorrow's food on top. Obviously the process got easier as the days went by.
I eventually was able to get 10 days of food (3,000 cal/day) into a Bearikade Expedition.
I generally didn't even bother trying to test the cell service as most of the time, you have a mountain range between you and the cell towers.
I've got Verizon, and didn't try on top of Donahue Pass, but I was able to get some sort of service (voice or text) at Tuoalumne Meadows, Red's, and from the top of Whitney (if you stood in just the right spot).
There isn't a significant weight increase for the larger Bearikade cannisters (compared to the amount of space you got). So I would suggest getting the biggest one that will fit in your pack.
BTW, looking at their website, they appear to only have links to rent the Weekender or the Expedition.
UPDATE: Hope your start date is Aug 13th or later... otherwise your decision on what to rent has been made for you.
A quick look at their rental page indicates that rentals on weekenders are sold out from now til Aug 13th.
Last edited by HooKooDooKu; 07-17-2018 at 17:10.
Sage to Summit offers Bearikade rentals; the scout, weekender, and expedition!
I only plan to use my phone for photos and occasionally trying to let loved ones know that I am ok. SO hopefully I will be able to let them be at peace knowing I am ok at least a few times
List of .places attScreenshot_20180717-190510.png
In 2012, I had Verizon and was able to get service near Sunrise Creek (much to my surprise) the first day out of the valley, at the top of Donahue Pass, and nowhere else. Someone we hiked with for a ways had AT&T and had service at Vermillion Valley and at least one other place that I didn't if I remember correctly.
I had ATT service at yosemite valley, tuolumne, donahue pass, reds meadow, lake edison mono creek end , vvr by lake.
There was a board at mtr listng cell service at various passes. Near as i could tell it was a joke.
Some had reception on whitney. I showed bars but couldnt send text. So i guess it was 911 service only for att at that time.
Last edited by MuddyWaters; 07-18-2018 at 21:10.
Amazing resource, thank you!!
haven't read every post. y'all know you dont need to fit all your food and smellables in the can, right? the first day's food can be stored outside of the can in or on your pack BUT ALWAYS KEPT IN YOUR IMMEDIATE POSSESSION. There are also bear proof storage boxes on part of the JMT or near to it that, when used wisely in a timely manner - when food haul is at it's greatest- can be used to safely store food and smellables. I doubt it applies but unsupported JMT FKTers doing 3 day or so thrus can legally avoid carrying a can because they supplement with bear bins. Even not after a FKT Malto and I have been able to organize JMT thrus LEGALLY with no can. It's been discussed briefly here.
Worked in mammoth few years ago. Only spot on trail it worked was the climb after the cut off to vvr....
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Weekender worked for me..longest resupply was from mtr to Whitney about 5.5 days
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Weekender worked fine for me
But it would not for the avg 12mpd hiker needing 10 day food.
Scout usually only holds 3 maybe four days pushing it. And, dont forget at night all your smellables have to be stored in the can. Unless you're an above avg MPD JMTer(if only on some segments between resupply, the most common JMT resupply pts aren't regularly conveniently spaced apart as anything resembling the AT), willing to resupply more often to lesser known places or in uncommon east coast ways(as compared to the AT, PCT, LT, etc), or particularly advanced in food and smellables volume minimizing(consumable and toiletry logistics) do not do the Scout. You shouldn't have to wait for on order food to arrive to know if you fit into any of these categories as I'm sure you're aware of the responsibility side of HYOH, working out your own hike, and knowing your hiking style(s).
What size can you take is dependent on the rest of your kit including what pack you're doing your JMT hike too. The Expedition takes up 15 L and is probably too big. If you have a 10L stuff sack around thats similar enough to the volume of the 650 cubic inch Weekender.
I would not count on consistent cell coverage no matter what carrier.
What is the average MPH hiker on the JMT? 12 per day? We are looking to average 15.
I should probably go with the weekender; planning on taking my ULA OHM. I dont like having stuff haning off my pack...so I hope the weekender will fit inside. Thats pretty much the only reason I was trying to make the scout work.
Thanks for your input!
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