"what are the pro and cons? I am a smaller framed person and do Ok with a stuffed Quetico Pack by GG. Why would one want to make a transittion to this style of pack....very curious about them with all the dialog.....Are there other sources for the barrels locally?"

re-read the hang vs hide threads - the main reason (I think) that people switch to barrels is that they don't feel a need to hang thier food pack, just hide the more or less airtight barrel in the brush near camp.  I haven't really looked at the barrels much, but I don't see that they are bear-proof - a determined bear can get in if he wants to, though a barrel, out of its harness, is a lot harder for a bear to take away than a pack he can just grab by a strap.

Kind of a Canadian thing too, where they tend to do more river tripping than lake tripping - the barrels are waterproof, more or less, and will float better than a pack;  except that after some time, the rubber seals will deteriorate and the barrels can/will leak if they take a ride down the river.   So if you trip with people who use barrels a lot, then you are likely to do the same.

    I have same setup as woods walker, with a twist.  I put  2" extruded foam in the base, made a mold that matched the diameter of the opening, filled the outside of the mold with "Great Stuff" and pulled the mold when the foam was set.  To this you can add plugs of extruded foam to separate items.
    If you carry frozen items this works very well.  Dry ice adds to the length of time things can be kept.  
    As an aside the barrel helps keep the fragile items safe.

Don't want to highjack this thread or anything...
but I just want to steer back to the original question...
I am going on a canoe/camp trip with three friends this summer. The four of us will be staying at Algonquin for four, or very likely 5 days.

Would you recommend the 60L or 30L food barrel?
Our clothes, tent, and sleeping bags will be in dry bags in our packs. The food barrel will be just for food, and possibly small items like bug spray. We will not being taking along a stove.

So, for four teens for for 5 days, a 60 L or 30L?

When I was buying an outdoor motor years ago, a sage friend said, buy the biggest motor your boat will handle, or you'll always wish you did.

Same philosophy works with food barrels.  Get the 60.

prouboy

Yeah, 60L.

Why no stove?  You're adding up to an hour to the cook time of every hot meal plus the need to gather firewood regardless of how crappy the weather is plus the need to douse the fire.  You could get caught in a fire ban situation.  You could get caught in a downpous situation with firewood sucking large.  Stove is required gear imo.  A tent is optional, a stove is not.

I love fire, good old caveman TV.  Sometimes it's not worth the effort.  I like my coffee hot & ready in under 15 minutes from morning's first ball scratch.