[pct-l] trail clothing

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

Since I was in Washington in August, I suppose it wasn't as cold as  
when most thru-hikers are there. My knees did not get cold. I wore  
shorts under my chaps (zipped off the legs and saved them for bed  
time). The silnylon of my chaps felt like just being wet when it was  
against my skin.

What I objected to most about the rain was having wet plants whap me  
right in the face and feeling like I was drowning or wading though an  
ocean of wet plants. Everybody says Section O is overgrown.  
Washington is like Section O on steroids. Especially that section  
that nobody likes between White Pass and Snoqualmie Pass. Nobody  
loves it so nobody gives it any love.

I don't know that I would try cycling or stretchy pants. That would  
be just one more thing to bring. You'd have to know when to you'll  
need them. It seemed to me that the kind of fabric Ex-officio pants  
are made of dries quickly enough.

Everybody I met in Washington kept telling me the weather report was  
for one more day of rain, then clearing afterwards. I kept believing  
them. It seems that Washingtonians have a funny idea of what clear  
skies means. It seems to mean that there's a little hole in the  
clouds where you can see a little patch of blue. It might be raining  
on top of you, but to them, that's clear and sunny. I hope this helps  
with planning, especially for those of us from Southern California  
where 20% chance of rain means it's not going to rain, the weatherman  
is just hoping to have something new to say for a change.

On Feb 13, 2010, at 10:32 PM, Stephen Adams wrote:

> See, different preferences.  I don't like sleeping with a hat on,  
> and I like my light down bag which I do more above timberline  
> stuff.  If I were marching up the trail and sleeping down in the  
> forrest more where it tends to be a bit warmer I would seriously  
> consider the 1lb rig you like.  1 lb is 1lb after all that you  
> can't eat.  Sounds good to me.
> Back to clothing, I was really impressed with my new wool long  
> johns.  I thought they were too light but turned out to be really  
> nice and warmer than my light patagonia stuff.  So I have been  
> getting more wool instead of polypro like my glove liners, beenie  
> etc...  And I first used zip off pants on that cold trip in the  
> Fall and I am converted.    I got light weight convertible pants  
> from ex-officio, and they are well made, and liked the shorts  
> better than I thought I would.  After reading your woes about  
> hiking wet in WA though I think I'd switch to something different  
> like lycra stretch pants like runners or I used to use cycling in  
> the rain as they still keep your knees warmer and don't bind like a  
> pari of soaked pants or rain gear.  What do think about that?  Have  
> you tried this?  It worked pretty good cycling.  Knee warmers like  
> I used to tuck under my bib shorts would probably continually fall  
> down without the elastic trim of cycling shorts to keep them up  
> your thighs... Thoughts?  The only problem I have in the rain with  
> shorts on is getting cold sore knees, and it is good to keep the  
> knee caps warm.
> On Feb 13, 2010, at 9:53 PM, Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com  
> wrote: