By: Blonde Two
I’ve never been any good at handbags. I love a rucksack but handbags irritate me. Not least because they require a hand (or at least a shoulder) to carry them (the clue’s in the name I guess!) But also because handbags and an outdoor life really don’t mix.
Walking trousers with pockets
Which is one of the reasons I love walking trousers (and their plentiful pockets) so much. With a plethora of sensible shaped pockets you can carry money, phones, maps, compasses, and lip salves. More importantly, you can access all of these without taking your rucksack off, at the same time as chatting to a group of youngsters, checking you’re walking in the right direction, and donning a face mask (well I can anyway).
When it comes to walking trousers with great pockets, the two I can recommend are Rohan walking trousers (fabulous for hidden, larger than expected pockets) and Fjallraven walking trousers (with a good belt you could probably manage without a rucksack at all). My Fjallraven Keb trousers are amazing. They have small pockets, big pockets, thigh pockets (my favourite), zip pockets, and probably pockets I haven’t found yet. They also have zips to let air in, which means that I can spend a fair amount of a walking day fiddling around and working out where I’ve put my… well anything really, and did once drop my compass straight down my leg.
Leggings with pockets
I also love wearing leggings. They are comfortable, bendy, and fit really easily under a pair of waterproof trousers. Most pairs of leggings however don’t have pockets. I have a couple of pairs that do. You can tell they’re my favourite because they also have plenty of not so useful holes!
Pockets in jeans
Jeans are hopeless for walking, and not great for camping unless the sun is set to shine all day (in which case shorts are advisable). They are however most people’s go-to trouser, and I love wearing mine when I’m not being Super-Outdoor-Girl. I’ve recently bought a size smaller pair of jeans. This should surely be a cause for celebration in anyone’s life but my celebration of jean-smallitude has been slightly marred by their sad lack of decent pockets.
Fair enough if I was the type of girl who wanted only to carry a (short) mascara and a (neatly folded) tissue. But I’m not. I want at least to be also able to carry my mobile phone (surely the mascara carrying girls also want this).
Because my jeans pockets are so small I recently dropped my phone down the loo. I was experimenting to see if it would fit in my back pocket (no) and forgot it was there. I place the blame for my now oddly patterned screen firmly at the feet of Marks & Spencer.
Perhaps when I go down the next size in jeans. I will feel confident enough to discard all small pocketed jeans. To be honest, I was so excited to find a pair in a smaller size that fitted me that I just grabbed and ran (after paying of course).
The disadvantages of pockets
A good pocket-packing system can soon clear up any pocket confusion but these shapely conveniences do have one other disadvantage. If you rely overly on them to carry your gear, you soon find yourself in need of a good belt!
Perhaps it’s time to investigate the hip pack (but obviously not a bum or fanny pack)!!!
