You should feel very intimidated by this picture
I am going to break this down in one word: pee-ability. That is, the ability to pee wherever you want. Now, I’m a big fan of leave not trace and peeing away from the trail, but the are some times when you just really, really have to go. If you are a guy, dealing with this situation in a discrete manner is easy (and I don’t have to tell you how), but for a woman, you run the risk of embarrassing yourself by showing off your backside. (Not that this has happened to me or anything).
Here is one example from my life: I was hiking in the White Mountains (I think on Wildcat D), and it began to storm. First it poured rain and then hail. As the wind blew, I hiked as fast as I could, trying to get off the mountain. Then, as luck would have it, I had to pee. I tried to ignore it. I fought it hard because at that moment dropping my pack, going into the woods, and taking off my soaked pants all in the hail, felt only slightly preferable to having my teeth pulled without anesthesia. Eventually, I had to give in. Now, if I had been wearing a skirt, I would have had enhanced pee-ability (I’m working on making that a word), and could have gone to the bathroom without even having to take off my pack.
There are other benefits to hiking in a skirt, but one more word about the pee issue. The shelters on the Appalachian Trail see a lot of traffic, and, if you choose to stay in one you will be surrounded by both your shelter-mates and the tents set up nearby. As a female, if you have to pee in the middle of the night or early in the morning, wearing a skirt diminishes the likelihood of unintended moonings (unless you’re into that kind of thing, in which case, wear pants or hike naked).
I first began hiking in a skirt after several enthusiastic recommendations from men and women wearing them on the trail. I am glad that I followed their advice. Here are a few other benefits I have observed: First, if it starts raining, you can easily slip your rain pants under your skirt, and then put your skirt in your bag. Likewise, if you get cold, you can slip your long underwear on and off very easily. When you’re wearing pants, this is a much more difficult situation. For warm weather, hiking in a skirt provides a nice ventilation, as I’m sure you guessed. I now hike with gaiters so that my legs are protected, and a skirt so that I can feel the breeze.
Yes, the uninitiated may think you are a little weird. For me, I never wear skirts in town, so my friends think it’s funny that I hike in one. They remind me of this often. And, perhaps I should have mentioned this sooner, you do run the risk of being called cute. But let me tell you, enhanced pee-ability and ventilation are a worthy trade-off for a little bit of ribbing.
