Thorofare Trekking Pants

Ryan Jordan did for the BPL store

Curious. Have you worn these before? Do you have skinny legs?

Hey Ken, To answer your question, no I have never worn the Thorofare pants before. I have liked the idea of these pants for a long time but never did anything about it. I currently use the Montbell wind pants but would like to have the pocket and not to have the ankle zips. I'm at this point going to DIY something similar (hopefully) to the Thorofare pants. I'm thinking of using 67 Argon from Dutch .

Thorofare are not wind pants. Argon 67 is not similar to the fabric used. Suplex nylon is similar but seems to be twice the weight of what BPL used.

-Tim

I had the Thorofare pants a few years ago. They were good for normal trail use. I wouldn't take them bushwacking. The fabric was fairly stretchy. I haven't seen any other fabrics like it.

REI's Sahara pants and shirts are about the lightest I'd want for any kind of durability.

I have both Sahara shirts and pants and found them well made and cool in summer.

Thanks for the info Tim. It looks like this idea is fading quickly!!!!

The fabric in the Thorofare was a limited run of extra light Pertex Equilibrium done by Perseverance Mills. I doubt we will ever see the fabric again :(

Even though it was 1/2 the weight of your typical supplex pants, they were a bit more water / wind resistant while being more comfortable against the skin because of the mechanical capillary action (wicking) and mechanical 2-way stretch. The downside is that the fabric was so light that it was easy to hole and would start to pill after ~1month of continuous use. My first pair lasted less than 1 year… ripped up bushwacking and glissading. The next pair lasted longer because I only used it on-trail, but it still wore out significantly faster than my traditional supplex pants. Third pair is sitting on my dresser and will only come out for special trips.

My recommendation is to stick with your basic supplex / nylon pants from companies like ex officio, rail rider, royal robbins, patagonia, columbia, etc. They will be a bit heavier but will be a lot more durable which fairly important in pants (not so needed in shirts).

As has been observed, the Thorofare were not wind pants, they are more air permeable, but in my experience uncoated wind pants could give somewhat similar experience. The closest experience would be light weight soft shell pants made using standard weight Equilibrium or light weight version of Schoeller Dryskin. My perference would be Dryskin because it's more durable and a bit more air permeable which typically want in pants.

–Mark

Thanks Mark