wear Levi jeans backpacking?

Wear jeans all winter (my jeans date from the 70s and 80s; I keep them together with iron-on patches and very bad stitchery; don't care what they look like: some people pay top dollar for jeans that are all ripped up!), but Royal Robbins canvas shorts (and a few other brands) in the summer around the house. Yes, jeans are confining, and I have to keep waist sizes from 32 to 34, but it's what I got.

Back about 15 years ago, I bought a couple dozen pairs of black nylon and lycra running shorts for both hiking and running. I still have them, though a few pairs have seen better days. Unless it's colder than hell (doesn't often happen here in Texas), I wear the shorts alone in the summer for walking and running, and wear lycra bicycle pants, from which I've removed the chamois crotch patch, under the shorts in cooler weather. (Don't want your junk to freeze!) My legs are good down to 35 degrees or so this way. I've been seen in the Hill Country in winter (I guess) wearing a down jacket and my black nylon shorts. (You were lucky if you didn't see me.)

If I need more protection from the sun or wind, I wear various brands of nylon pants: whatever I can find on sale at REI.

For colder conditions, I have some fleece-lined Mysterioso M-tech pants that serve the dual purpose of sleepgear for cold, as well as insulation for stream crossing.

However, I mostly go with the light nylon pants (no convertibles except for dayhiking in "middle" weather when it might get warmer in the afternoon) and "insurance" silk long johns for the possibility I might need to ward off chill at 3 or 4 AM. IOW, I "layer".

In temperate weather I wear cotton tee shirts. In the hot a lot of times ones with the sleeves cut off. For several reason just a lot more comfortable to me than the synthetics I have tried. I guess jeans could be that for someone. Some people can't understand still using anything cotton.

That said, I haven't wore jeans on the trail since the 70's when I discovered my first Army surplus store. Nylon cammo pants in the warm and a drabe green super dense thin wool pants for the cold that I got there were staples for me for years. Then EMS opened near by and ...

Here is a true story.

I haven't worn pair of jeans since August 1981. After getting out of the Army the previous April and managing a restaurant for eight months I decided to go to school and enrolled at the local community college. It was first week of classes and the instructor was late for the chemistry lab so all of us students were waiting outside in the hall for him to get there. I didn't know anyone and so was just waiting like everybody else. What I noticed was that every one of us were wearing bluejeans. When the instructor there even he was wearing jeans. For some reason, this struct me as a little odd and was on my mind for the rest of the day. Being the contrarian that I am, I decided that day that I was not going to wear jeans ever again. I haven't since.

Another quick example of how I tend to not go with the flow was in high school in North Carolina. (A tobacco state where there were smoking patios outside of classrooms.) Everyone smoked. Being the rebel that I am, I decided that I would not start smoking. It was probably one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Here's to all who follow their own path and refuse to be conformists!

I love cotton tees in summer as they provide evaporative cooling. A breeze on a sweat soaked tee is wonderful. For pants, no thanks.

I wear old blues jeans for local day hikes of about 5 miles in the forest preserves southwest of Chicago in colder weather, which is when I do my local hikes. Since I'm often off-trail I need some rugged pants that I don't mind inflicting some wear & tear on.

As for backpacking, I think I last wore jeans in 1986.