I'm planning a trip to Peru later this year, where 3 friends and I will be hiking the Incan trail through (and by "through" I mean "up and over") the Andes Mountains to the ruins at Machu Picchu. It's going to be awesome!
It all started a little over a year ago when a friend/co-worker returned from Peru raving about what a great trip it was. The seed was planted and over the next few months, the foursome was formed and the planning began. We found a trail guide group, bought plane tickets, hired sherpas to schlep our stuff up and down the mountain and began training for the hike.
After our first few "training" sessions, we were tan and had beautiful toenails, but were still feeling a little nervous about the upcoming hike. After a couple more training sessions, we figured out that in order to be serious about our training, we needed new outfits.
After hours of browsing (no, seriously...have you been to the Flagship REI? it's amazing we got out in hours, rather than days) and a few minutes of being judged, we picked out some things and headed to the register. Being noobs at this hard-core hiking thing, there was a fair amount of skepticism involved as we purchased backpacks, camel-bak bladders, moisture-wicking apparel and pants that have zippers just above the knee, so that they become shorts when you zip off the legs.
Normally, that's the type of fashion statement I would mock. However, when attempting hard-core hiking, the mantra, "Form Follows Function" definitely comes into play. And in our next training session, I learned that zip-off pants are actually magical. When I'm wearing my zip-off pants I turn from slightly prissy Southern girl from into totally BA hiker chick, who can kick your butt, the trail's butt and proudly display the designs of dirt and sweat covering her arms and legs.
Just like a good workout shoe should make you want to jump and run, apparently good zip-off pants make me want to hike. I bet if the Incans had had zip-off pants, they could have handled the Spaniards, np.
I love my zip-off pants!
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