Rain Kilt!

[Redbeard]

Rain pant's suck. You have to either take off your boots or get the insides muddy, and then sweat inside them. So why not a syl nylon rain kilt? Velcro waist, maybe some elastic string around the knees to keep it from flying. Get it in neon so it looks like a costume for a New Wave band. Seriously, I wear an anorak and gaitors, I never cared if my shorts got wet when it was warm, but with a cold spring coming, I'd rather not have ice ass.

[mongstad]

I agree about the pants. I haven't tried it yet, but in The Complete Walker IV it was suggested to just take a lawn and leafbag and cut the bottom out. Seems simple, light, cheap and practical to me.

[DebW]

I've thought of this also, but haven't made one yet. I might bring rain chaps to wear under the kilt in camp when it's cool and you want your pants to stay dry. Still, chaps and kilt are much better ventillation than pants.

[Trail Yeti]

You don't need a "rain kilt"...just a regular kilt. You will get just as wet from sweat as the rain...consider it a shower. If you keep moving you stay warm, and when you get into to camp you will be surprised how quickly your kilt dries out.
I got rid of my rain pants in va....and in vt bought a pair of tall gaiters. With them pulled all the way up, and the kilt on it was just like wearing pants....well kind of like it. I just pushed them down when it was warm.
I did carry a pair of synthetic boxers w/the fly sewn shut in case I was soaked and got into camp late and to sleep in. The next morning I would put the cold, wet kilt on over the boxers for about 5 minutes and then it wasn't quite such a shock for "the boys".

[Peaks]

I have often wondered about using a rain coat instead of rain jacket and rain pants.

A rain coat would be much longer than a jacket.

[Redbeard]

A syltarp raincoat was my original want, but I thought of sweat. I think just wrapping syltarp around the waist to cover shorts(or kilt:D) would allow enough ventilation. I hardly bothered putting anything on for rain once it got warm, but those cold rainy day's in georgia made it hard to put on wet frozen shorts(yes trail yeti, it's quite a shock for "the boy's"!)

[RagingHampster]

I plan on a long rain shell that goes down below my @$$ to around mid-theigh level. I wear gaiters with my boots (soon to be trail runners) and this would leave only my knees open to rain. I think I could put up with that...