Quote Originally Posted by Tartan Hiker View Post
... an Appalachian Mountain rhododendron hell
At least the rhododendron along the Appalachian Trail is tamed into "tunnels" that you can walk through without worrying about snagging your kilt on.


However, when it snows, all of those slender rhody branches bow down and block your way. I found that at times I had to whack, whack, whack the whole mess with my trekking poles to loosen the snow so the branches sprung back up into place. Then I had to crawl through what holes I could make. So even groomed rhododendron can mess with a kilt (of course I was wearing a kilt when I did all this).

I also wore a tank up the rock scramble of Katahdin in Maine.


You'll see in the second photo that handholds are attached to the rock in places because you couldn't get up without them. This is a $500 kilt, and I had no qualms about wearing it out in the woods. At least the knees will never wear out!

Andrew.