Bushwacking Capable Convertible Pants?

I haven't done serious bushwacking in them, but I have used the Columbia Titanium Omni-Dri Convertible pants in the Superstition Wilderness. I did a little bushwacking on this trip, and the trails were often overgrown. The scrub was bad enough to bloody my exposed arms, but these pants came through the 4 day trip without barely a scratch. I don't know how they'd compare to the REI Saharas.

They dry very quickly, are light and comfortable, and super stain resistant. I got stabbed with a plant in the calf muscle bad enough for it to actually squirt blood. Gross, I know. The blood ran down the pants and the stain "set" for 3 days. When I got home, I simply threw them in the regular wash, and the blood stain vanished. Not a stinking trace to be found of it! And no pretreating, either.

However, I would suspect there would be some more durable options out there, albeit heavier and possibly less quick-drying.

Levis. And a UL pair of shorts.

You could try Mountain Khakis.

They have convertible nylon pants on their website (Snake River Convertible), but I don't have any experience with them. I do, however, have a pair of their cotton original mountain pants and they are pretty indestructible.

I've been having good luck with the Patagonia GI II convertible pants. I've used them to re-open the Hurricane Deck trail from White Ledge to Lost Valley and then bushwhack down Lost Valley back to the Manzana. I came out with bleeding arms and covered in soot but no tears in the pants/shorts. The bonus was that the blood and soot washed out of the pants, no problem.

The other options I'd consider would be some Carrhart work shorts with knee-high gaiters. Not UL by any means nor really convertible for that matter, but it ought to be a durable outfit aside from your knees being exposed.

Or I'd look for convertible pants made out of nylon ripstop, at least that way, the tears, if any, would be minimized.

Sorry for the hijack but are you helping to connect the Rancho Nuevo Trail to Don Victor?

Some Railriders pants have double fabric on the knees and seat. The fabric is 100% nylon and amazingly tough for how thin it feels. The tight weave and strong thread just don't snag. The cuffs have gussets so you can open them wide then roll the legs up into long shorts. The fabric is thin enough to roll well. That is what I wear for trailwork in Arizona.

Duluth Trading has some heavy weight fabric pants and shorts.

Carharts purchased from Sierra Trading Post are good trailwork clothes. When new, they may need some breaking in before going on a long hike.

Not convertibles, but some other ideas.

Dickies–Walmart has them. It's what most stone, brick, & landscape folks I know use. Cheap.

NOLS Windpants–1000 denier reinforced knees and seat http://www.nols.edu/store/product.php?productid=16383&cat=0&page=1

Cabelas–Briarguard Pants or Chaps.

Pants:
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat470076-cat601750_TGP&id=0039954941387a&navCount=1&podId=0039954941387&parentId=cat601750&masterpathid=&navAction=push&catalogCode=IA&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat601233&hasJS=true

Chaps:
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0039954943126a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCHFEAT_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntt=chaps&Ntk=Products&sort=all&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form1

Nicholas,

Yes, a couple weekends ago we hiked up Rancho Nuevo about 9 miles from the trailhead (3 miles past Upper Rancho Nuevo Camp). We cleared and/or marked the trail most of the way. The ultimate goal is to clear out existing trails and create a few new trail connections for the Condor Trail. The hopes would be that the Condor Trail, when finished, will stretch the entire length of the Los Padres NF from South to North (over 200 miles) starting close to I-5 where it passes between the Angeles and Los Padres NFs and extending to Big Sur. In a couple weeks we are going out again and will clear trails around the Big Pine/Madulce/Dutch Oven area.

Feel free to PM me at NateEady @ aol dot com if you or anyone else has questions or wants to participate, or we can keep the discussion going in a more appropriate forum. Bryan Conant has already produced some rough maps of the route if you're interested.

For anyone else who has stumbled across this thread and is scratching their head and mumbling "huh?" into their coffee. We are talking about backcountry trails in the San Rafael and Dick Smith Wilderness areas, located in the Los Padres National Forest, on the Central Coast of California. Great places to hike, IMHO.

PS- If you've read this far, kudos, I'm still interested in people's suggestions for convertible bushwhacking pants.

North face Paramount pants are pretty solid. Around 80bucks in Canada but they can ALWAYS be found on sale. Also MHW Mesa Convertible Pants are pretty similar and same price. I Also think that Columbia makes some cotton canvas convertible pants that are heavy and tough

I have the MHW Mesa Convertibles, and I can say they are TOUGH. They are made out of a thicker nylon canvas than most, and they stand up pretty well to abuse. I have used mine here in GA and also in Big Bend NP in Texas. At Big Bend they held up well to scrambling on rocks, walking through thorns/cacti, and just general everyday wear. I can also say that they work great in snow. I wore them with no gaiters post-holing through 2-3ft drifts and only the fabric right at my heel got wet. Good at blocking the wind, too. They're my favorite convertibles (and I love the fit, too).