UPS: We'll lose your package fast and beat it up a little bit for good measure.
FedEx: We'll beat the crap out of your package. We mean it.
USPS: We'll ship your package, it'll be cheap, but hell if we know where it is... but it'll usually get there on time.
Yeah, the choices between three...
What has been said about flying back the ice chests as luggage. Also some airlines have a weight limit per ice chest and charge a fee after that even for the free ones so don't exceed that limit.
I met up with a guy who was hiking the Northville-Placid trail a couple of weeks ago, while I was in the Lake Durant area. He had just hiked through the West Canada Wilderness area and was using a bear canister. He said it was a little heavy but far easier than hanging a bag.
I really like the Sirui A-1205 WY11 head i got from Doug at cameraland. It was under 200 last year when I got it. I spent a lot of time behind it last year with my binos and am really happy with it.