I will agree that wool is a good, hearty material, and will stand up to any abuse sent its way.

However, poly-viscose is also an excellent material, and it is what I wore on my 2,000 mile Appalachian Trail hike. I will be wearing it again on my upcoming Pacific Crest Trail (2,600 miles) hike this spring. It will be the only article of clothing that survived enough to wear again (I went through two shirts, and umpteen pairs of socks). There is no noticable wear. It dries within an hour of being soaked if I remain active (by soaked I mean spending five hours in a downpour, or fording a river deep enough to make all men equal, if you know what I mean). I chose to wear a PV kilt because I didn't want to ruin a more expensive kilt. As it turns out I didn't ruin the PV kilt either!

Andrew.