One of the great things about xmarksthescot.com is that no matter how much you know, you can still always learn something new.
Or at the very least, have new things to try.
Now I had posted a photo of my standard hiking outfit when I visited Henry Cowell State Park last week. This week my lovely Star and I were going on a longer hike (12 miles) at Big Basin State Park. The weather was going to be warmer and our trip twice as long as the week prior. So I pulled stuff out and thought about not making a good looking or traditional looking highland outfit, but making the most comfortable hiking outfit I could come up with. I also wondered about the sporran problem and was curious if using a more modern sporran with pockets (one of Stillwater Kilt's old "Nightstalker" sporrans) and such to organize my things would eliminate the need for an additional holster for my phone.
Taking Crazydave's suggestion I went with my Sport Kilt instead of my usual USA Kilt Semi traditional. The tartan is the Official California State tartan and it is based on the Muir tartan (in honor of naturalist John Muir) so it is a pretty appropriate tartan to go hiking in.
I changed my good looking (but old fashioned) khaki Messenger bag with something a bit more modern that would stay in place as I walked (and it had a small pocket on the strap that fit my favorite Gerber folding knife perfectly!)
The black work boots were replaced with lightweight trail shoes, I skipped the belt since I was carrying my phone in my sporran, and yes those are cheap soccer socks that breathe really well but fit snuggly enough to act almost as compression hose (and most importantly protect my legs from ticks and poison oak). I even changed out my market stick for a modern version.
Off we went on our hike through the redwoods
About halfway through the hike I determined that while my sporran didn't bounce because of the evenly distributed weight, it still was rather heavy. So I took Shinenotburn's suggestion and wore it at my side.
PERFECT!
It was so much more comfortable to hike with it on my hip.
Jock Scot (and other staunch traditionalists) if you are reading this post, know that this ensemble is not worn in anyway to represent traditional highland attire. I was looking for the most comfortable and efficient hiking outfit for Summer in California. I am really pleased with how comfortable I was
For the record we made the loop in 5 hours
My apologies to the Jonathan (the OP) if I'm hijacking his thread
Cheers
Jamie
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