I recently purchased a pair of Kuhl Renegade soft shell pants. At 13 oz they are a little heavy, but I absolutely love them. I was concerned about high temp hiking, but I did some hard hiking in 80+ degrees, no wind, direct sun and found them to be perfectly cool. Later that same day the fog rolled in and the temp dropped to 40 or so with lots of blustery wind and again, I was cozy in them.
These are made of 91% nylon, 9% spandex and don't tug at the knees at all. Several others I tried on were much more restrictive on high stair stepping. There are plenty of pockets which I like, and a couple of zips for more ventilation.
These don't have zip off legs, something that I thought would be desirable. I no longer think so. Hiking with my legs fully covered, I don't need sunscreen (these are 50+ SPF). I really dislike cleaning up the grime and goop sunscreen creates come time to climb in for the night, not to mention the weight of the goop. And another thing I hadn't thought would make a difference is that having direct sun on my legs, even with sunscreen, is tiring.
There's also an unexpected sense of freedom that comes when you can hike in direct sun, into scratchy brush, through poison oak overgrowth, drizzle, and on into cool evening without every stopping to change into the exact legwear for the situation.
