I always get hot and sweaty while hiking, and have recently been wearing trail running shorts with an ExOfficio mesh ventilated longsleeve button up hiking shirt. However, with warm weather comes the 'skeeters and ticks, so, rather than slathering on the DEET on my calves (clothes are Permethrin treated.... highly recommend it), I decided to go with full length pants but with zippered vents backed by mesh/netting down the leg.
I used Supplex/Taslan as the material, which is a 100% nylon fabric that dries quickly and has a soft, cottony feel. The particular color I chose also happened to have a UPF rating of 50+, which is great for summer use. It also had a great DWR treatment, but that's no more, as I just treated the pants with Permethrin, which keeps mosquitoes, ticks, flies, etc from biting, but degrades any DWR treatment.
My inspiration came from Railriders Eco-Mesh Pants which has zippered vents on the outseam. Mine is zippered on the inseam for simplicity, since the method I use only has seams on the inseam and crotch/butt crack. The added benefit of having the vent on the inside is that the vent/mesh is less likely to get snagged on brush while hiking. I only added a single pocket to the right leg, as that's all I ever really use.
They're very comfortable (the bug netting doesn't scratch or anything and I don't even notice the zips).
Total weight: 175.2g / 6.18oz
Materials:
-3.4-3.7 oz/yd2 Supplex/Taslan - Ash Gray UPF50+ from Rockywoods (2 yards is plenty)
-gray noseeum netting also from Rockywoods
-#3 YKK zipper from DIY Gear Supply,
-3/8" no-twist elastic and random lanyard for waist drawcord.
Elastic for most of the waist except the front, which I've sewn the lanyard pieces into to have a partial drawcord.
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| Closeup of the vents from the outside. |
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| This is what it looks like inside. All seams that weren't captured by the zipper (crotch, butt, ankle) were felled to increase strength/durability. |
These are currently the only pictures I have of wearing the "pant."
This part took the longest. Sewed an inch of the crotch first, then the
zippers, then each side of the netting to each section of zipper/pant,
then folded and sewed the zipper down to the leg again from the outside,
capturing the cut edge of the netting in the supplex and the supplex
edge caught by the netting.
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| Seriously, I could have sewn another pair or two of pants in the time it took me to do the vents, but the second leg I did went by much faster/cleanly. |
Much thanks goes to Roger Caffin and Jerry Adams of Backpacking Light for their great tutorials on how to make Supplex/taslan pants.