my day hikes range from 10 - 25 miles round trip. summer temps are 85 - 105, mostly w/o cover. i carry a 15 - 18 lb pack. mostly water. i do not perspire, i sweat.

when i would stop for lunch i got tired of feeling like i was a soaking wet dishrag while wearing cotton. sure, it dried, but i had to take it off to get it to do so.

the synthetics i use dry quickly while wearing them, do not rub me the wrong way, protect me against nature - bugs, thorns, abrasions - and have lasted a lot longer than the cotton i started out with. and mine don't get an odor.

i'm sure there's a great place for cotton - but for me, in my circumstances - been there, done that, no bueno.

just my $.02.

There you go. Take a close look at this proud man named Geronimo by the Mexicans. He's a good illustration and inspiration for desert clothing:



He's got a large neckerchief (thousands of uses). His garment at the groin can't be looser since he's wearing a handspun cotton loincloth or kilt. But he's also wearing leggings (thermal underwear).

Notice also his long thick Apache moccasins that help protect against rattlesnake bites and cactus thorns and is properly closed at the top as if he's wearing puttees to prevent sand from entering.

For those cold nights he would propably don an old fashion "poncho" over everything, the kind wore by Clint Eastwood in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Frankie

Ol' Geronimo made alot of money off this wonderfully commercial photo (he understood and embraced capitalism). I bet he never guessed it would have been used as an example for proper desert clothing.

Good point about the loincloth/kilt. It reminds me of the other discussion about the kilt that someone just purhcased. It may not be a bad idea to go the kilt route for desert conditions.

cochise was a better dresser: cochise




yeah, but what about hitchhiking ticks?

Okay, 100 years ago you either wore cotton, wool, leather or silk. Since only the very wealthy living in big cities could afford or even find silk clothing, guess what everyone had to wear to stay cool back then?

If cotton is all you got, then you make the best of it. Personally I think hemp makes a better fabric, but the process is a little more involved, and right now it is a bit too difficult getting permission to grow any here.

If it's for the summer, I vote for cotton, too. I wear cargo pants and t-shirts a lot, and I have cargo shirts, too - either should fill your need for extra pockets. I suggest a hat, as well; not a cap.

I worked summers in Texas at a place that made railroad cross-ties, and long pants, long sleeves, and hats worked very well. I preferred chambray shirts, as they were light and breathable, but soaked up the sweat for easy evaporation.

I wear cargo pants from Royal Robbins (now 511, I think) and BDU pants in khaki or navy. I know you don't want military gear, but nobody has ever commented on the BDUs, and I think I'm getting away with it. (Might be because I'm 60, though.) Both pants are made for scrambling in bad terrain (Royal was a rock climber and designed his pants for that), and they have lasted me years (remember my age, though - I may not scramble as much as you). Cargo pants and a long-sleeved t-shirt project an everyday image so long as you aren't blousing your pants in combat boots.

I wear my cargo pants and shirts to Burning Man every year - often around a hundred during the day, cool at night. Layers are your friend. So are hats and bandanas.

My suggestion is not to buy all one make of pants and shirts. REI sells many cargo pants that just don't wear well in the real world. They're made of some fabric that won't let you sweat through, and the fabric is too thin to last. I'm sure they're made for people who travel in planes and cars, but not on the ground.

That pic of Cochise looks a lot like Paul Newman in Hombre...

For cold Arizona nights Goyathlay would wrap up in a fine woolen blanket woven by the near cousins of the Apache people the Dine', aka Navahos.I was a litle boy living in Scottsdale and one day we drove out into the desert past the Salt river looking at property. It was the year when many cattle died of a fast moving strain of Hoof and Mouth and we saw countless corpses along the road. My mother rolled up the windows and announced we would never buy land there. I think it's now covered by tract homes and malls. Our pink, hemi engined Chrysler station wagon suddenly overheated and we pulled into the shade of a green paloverde tree, shade being relative.My father found the fan belt had snapped and slowly poured water from the flaxen desert bag into the radiator.About that time a Apache indian cowboy rode up on a skewbald horse. I was quickly in deep theological turmoil about who's side he would be on playing cowboys and indians.He walked off the road and returned with long fibrous leaves to weave an expediant fanbelt. We drove @ 20 MPH to the nearest gas station and found they were sold out. My father wheeled the car north for Scottsdale and headed home. Some idiot blew past us in an Olds 88 rocket on a blind curve, and my father, an early exponent of roadrage punched the hemie. We blew past the Olds at a safe and sane 100 MPH past bloated cows, land I would never inherit and our cowboy waving his hat overhead and making his horse pop up. Next morning the garage had to buy a new hacksaw blade to get that cactus fanbelt off for a superior rubber one that would wear out soon enough in the desert heat. This started my long association with ethnobotony and knwing what people used before we dug up dead dinosaurs to run our cars and dress in.

Wayne:
Phoenix has a very good search and rescue team that is out in the desert all the time, contact the sheriff as to there telephone number and talk with them. I am sure they can answer all of your questions as to clothing for desert use.

"yeah, but what about hitchhiking ticks?"

Like cactus, a fact of life.

Sue