Hiking Pants

Clothes serve a very important purpose when engaging in outdoor activities such as hiking. Though generally speaking, the purposes of outdoor clothing and everyday clothing are similar for the most part, outdoor clothing has a far more important job to do for the itinerant hiker - that is, to protect us from extreme conditions that are commonly met when we're on the trail.

Hiking pants are one of the more significant aspects of outdoor clothing and one that you can never do without. Wearing a pair of hiking pants while on the trail help you maintain your Thermal Equilibrium – that is, the amount of heat that your body produces. Not only that, but hiking pants also protect you against the possible roughness of outdoor activities. They help keep you from getting scraped by jagged rocks that litter the trail, getting scratched by branches, and even protecting you from animal bites.

While hiking pants in general share lots of common characteristics and serve basically the same purpose, there certain types that provide protection that is slightly different from the rest. So below is a list of some of the more common types of hiking pants and what advantage they provide to hikers like you:

Short and Long (Thermal) Underwear Hiking Pants

When it comes to outdoor clothing, experts say that the three layer system should be followed. The first layer is often the one responsible for keeping sweat from your body while the last layer is the one that protects you from all the external factors around you.

The short and long (thermal) underwear hiking pants serve as your first layer of clothing. As the first layer, these hiking pants are responsible for extracting moisture away form your skin. These hiking pants for your legs can come either in boxer short length or full length. For underwear, it is very important that these hiking pants protect your delicate areas from chafing.

Tights Hiking Pants

Falling under the same category as long thermal underwear, tights are great hiking pants as your leg's first layer protection. These hiking pants often have the same moisture-extracting qualities needed for the base layer. However, recent technological advancements have seen developments in activity or conditioning of tights hiking pants.

These developments specifically target those areas that help support key muscle groups and help prevent lactic acid buildup. So, now your tights hiking pants not only provide you with a way to maintain your thermal equilibrium, they also help you prevent muscle soreness caused by lactic acid buildup.

Long Hiking Pants

Long hiking pants are mostly meant for use in combination with normal or short thermal underwear hiking pants. That's why when you go to a shop looking for hiking pants, these long pants types are usually what you will find.

Long hiking pants often combine the multiple functions of the three layer system in one light fabric. These hiking pants are mostly breathable and water- and wind- resistant. In addition, many of these hiking pants come with a convenient zipper feature, allowing you to remove its bottoms so you can wear them as shorts. This type of hiking pants could be considered as suitable for three seasons.