I went hiking in the rain today. I thought I had good raingear but I learned otherwise... for hiking I got a pair of waterproof carhartt work boots, my feet stayed bone dry but most of the rest of me was wet! It was raining pretty hard, and I was on a trail.

1. Poncho - I had I guess what you call a standard poncho. It had buttons on the sides. Problems with it:
-Not long enough - the bottom of my jeans sticking out the poncho were soaked after 2 hours in the rain
-Side - the sides were button up. Can you get a poncho with solid or zip up sides so water cant seep in? My sides were soaked by the end of the hike
-The head - water came in through the neckline and my shirt got soaked
-Too short in general - I had my backpack on underneath the poncho. I'm also a very tall guy. Is it possible to get extra long ponchos, or ponchos made for wearing a big backpack underneath?
-When going bushwaking, should I get a ripstop poncho?

2. Pants - as mentioned before, the bottoms of my pants got soaked. Is getting waterproof pants a good idea or is there another solution?

Any other tips on hiking in heavy rain? I really enjoyed it, and would have gone much longer if I had stayed dry. Don't get me wrong, my poncho really helped but after being out 2-3 hours I was pretty soaked under that poncho. Ideally I'd like a solution to stay bone dry.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I would look at something like this-
http://www.campmor.com/cascade-ii-cagoule.shtml?source=CI&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=77708GREXXL

Campmor is one of the few places I know of that sells them in the US.

Wiggy sells this one, but it's way more than the one from Campmor-
http://wiggys.com/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=150

Ditch the jeans. About the only thing they do on the trail is get soaked. Doesn't your poncho have a hood? Most do and it is usually quite effective. Ponchos do come in various sizes, some large enough to accommodate a backpack.

I have found in warm weather I prefer to wear shorts under a poncho. Skin is waterproof and dries very fast. This doesn't work at this time of year most places.

This topic is where personal preference really plays a role. Location and weather conditions also play a big factor. There are a lot of different types of "raining". Since you don't have a ripstop poncho, then my guess is that it is vinyl, or PVC. Regardless of the material, it sounds like you have a non-breathable poncho. Since it is non-breathable, it is highly likely that you got soaked from within. Your own sweat couldn't escape and pooled around your neck and shoulders.
Try this, put on a dry cotton t-shirt and then put on your poncho. Go stand in the shower (with it on, of course). Make sure water is flowing over your shoulder seam. When you get out of the shower, check your t-shirt and see where it got wet. If your shirt is wet, then that is where it is leaking. If it isn't wet, then you were soaked by perspiration.

Staying dry in the rain is not easy. You can get better coverage (rain pants and a nice jacket), but the more you seal yourself up, the more sweat builds up. Jackets get fancy with pit vents and high tech fabrics (eVent, Gortex), but in the end if it is really high humidity and you are active there is not much you can do to stay dry. It is more important to be able to stay warm and then dry off quickly given the chance. The most important thing to do is loose fabrics that act like sponges and don't keep you warm (i.e. jeans).

Ideally I'd like a solution to stay bone dry.

This would be ideal, of course. Here in Oregon I've tried a lot of raingear solutions over the years, but that danged 'ideal' one hasn't ever materialized. However, I do think you can improve quite a bit on the experience you described.

The rain getting in at your neckline sounds like a seam leak to me. You could look at putting on a sealant. The rain getting in at your open sides is just one of the weak points of a poncho.

The Campmor rain cagoule TomD linked to is a good piece of raingear and it will cover you down to the vicinity of your knees, like a long coat. And it is a fairly low price for decent raingear, unlike the super-fancy stuff out there that can run you over $200 at its worst.

The advice to ditch the jeans is good advice. In heavy rain, the water runs down the outside of your rain gear and anything exposed beneath its bottom edge gets a river directed onto it. Cotton jeans soak up water like a a sponge and then takes two lifetimes get dry again. Anything synthetic (nylon or polyester) in the way of pants will be an improvement. At least it soaks up less water and dries faster.

If you want your pant legs to stay "bone dry" (or something like that), then you'll need to intercept that river that is dripping off the bottom of your raingear. You can go with rain pants, or, if you can find them, you can look at rain chaps that cover just your legs.

The problem with all rain gear is that the more completely it covers you and excludes rainwater, the more completely it traps your body heat and sweat. If you are exerting very heavily (carrying a pack, climbing a hill) this means quite a lot of sweat gets trapped. Then the trick is to ventilate in such a way that some of that heat/moisture escapes, but little or no rain water gets into the vent holes.

There are many solutions to this venting problem, some very expensive. Pit zips. Back flaps. Gore-Tex. eVent. NONE of them are perfect or even especially good. All of them help somewhat.

You'll need to figure out what most PNWers know. If you're really working hard in heavy rain, bone dry is not an option, but you can get the moisture down to a middling amount of steamy dampness, rather than purely soaked sopping wetness.

At the risk of being redundant with prior responses, IMO it's a matter of shifting expectations, plus wearing the right clothing.

In general if I'm backpacking and it rains for any length of time, I don't expect to stay dry. Raingear is more about temperature control. But I know that with very light, layered, quick-drying clothing it just doesn't matter much if I stay dry or not (to include my shoes/feet).

As long as your expectation is that you should be able to stay completely dry, I think you'll either be unhappy in wet weather, or really limit what you try to do, or both.

Accept getting wet (okay, within reason), control temperature more than humidity, keep in mind that body heat can quickly dry proper hiking clothes, and as a result, be happy in the rain (singing in it is optional).

The advantage of synthetic fabrics over cotton is that your body heat will dry the synthetics in 15-20 minutes once it stops raining. If you have breathable rain gear, your body heat will dry them out (but not as fast) even inside the rain gear if you are not sweating.

Cotton absorbs more than its weight of moisture and takes forever to dry. It's the worst possible fabric for hiking in cold, wet weather.

Try a test when doing the laundry. Weigh your jeans before you put them in the washer and again after you take them out to see how much water they've absorbed. Do the same thing with a pair of synthetic fabric pants and note the difference in water absorbed (the synthetic pants will be almost dry after the washer spin cycle). Then check the dryer time for jeans vs. comparable synthetic fabric pants.

Try looking for a pair of nylon track pants or similar exercise pants at your local big box stores. Check their athletic departments, not the outdoors section. Discount sporting goods stores will have them, too. I got a pair of track pants (polyester) on sale for about $10 two years ago at Big 5 (discount sporting goods chain).

I personally prefer a rain jacket and rain pants. That's because I often hike above timberline or at the beach where the rain tends to be horizontal. Also, here in the Pacific NW we have a lot of trails overgrown with high underbrush as mentioned above. Just morning dew can soak you to the waist. That's no big deal on a nice day with quick-drying pants, but if it's cold, that's a different story.

You could also pair the above mentioned cagoule with gaiters to keep your lower legs dry or, if the jacket is long enough, use rain chaps instead of rain pants (you need the jacket long enough for rear coverage when you bend over).

There's a garment called a "Packa" which is basically a cagoule with a big wad of fabric in back to cover a large backpack. Again, you'd want to have gaiters or chaps to cover your lower legs.

Why do you want to be bone dry?

If it is not cold, say below 45-50F or so, I don't bother with dry. I'd rather have clean rain water than sweat in the clothes. I'm probably moving fast enough to keep the warmth flowing and my wicking clothing is going to work with me to not make me have that soaked wet feeling. I might have an umbrella or poncho in use if it's really coming down.

If it's cold, I start to worry about getting wet more. I have a poncho, or I use the trash bag and a strip of duct tape to make a rain skirt and put up the umbrella. That was sufficient in a total deluge one day when we were looking for a lost radio. Three hours I walked around like that and stayed dry - oh, except for my Goretex trail shoes! My socks were squishy and soaking wet, and my feet were cold. Thank goodness for dry shoes in the car. Compromised Goretex makes a shoe worse than having no Goretex at all - the water just sits in there and squishes around.

I have the non waterproof shoes for three season use and do not have problems with that - heat, friction, and wet are what give you blisters. I have shoes that fit so don't have friction, thus no blisters. Wool socks work great for warmth, and I do not care if they are damp since even damp they are comfortable. If I wore Goretex I would sweat much more and make my feet hot enough to cause me problems, so I save Goretex for winter.

I wear nylon pants, merino wool short sleeve or a synthetic shirt, wool or wool blend socks, and I never bother fussing with dry unless it's a matter of hypothermia prevention. Have not been uncomfortable enough to bother. I never worry about the pants as they dry in 10 minutes while I am walking, after the rain stops. I rarely actually put on my rain jacket except for warmth when I have to layer up or protect my down jacket.

That's what I do, too, when it's warm. I of course have warm stuff and rain gear ready to put on when I stop, so I don't get chilled.

I assumed from the OPs username that he's in Idaho, so I also assumed the weather is cold! I think we all did!

It is currently, no doubt. It's pretty darn cold here too. Just no snow yet. Apparently, southern Cali is almost hot right now which I find weird.

But I also know it's pretty warm in Idaho in summer... I recall our vehicle overheated there when we drove through on our way to Montana.

I'm never really bone dry, thanks to my habit of sweating when I hike, but I do take a dry set of clothes for camp when it's cold so I don't shiver at night.

I'd rather have clean rain water than sweat in the clothes.

I think that if he enjoyed soaked jeans and clean rainwater running down his neck, he wouldn't have posted this question to begin with.

My clothes don't do the same thing. There is a difference between clothes that soak it up and clothes that let it go. I used to hike in jeans and recently tried it again - I don't know how anyone does it! Now that I know what it feels like to have lighter, less confining, more temperature regulating material on my body, it's impossible to go back to that. And I didn't even get them soaking wet.

I think his biggest problem is the clothing he is wearing. It looks like most of us have gone to lightweight synthetics, as opposed to cotton - "the death fabric." Cotton only works in hot, dry conditions, and even then, synthetics are superior, IMHO.

I agree that when you are out moving around in the rain, it is virtually impossible to stay bone dry. The best solution is to have a change of clothing reserved for the dry interior of the cabin or tent.

It's generally pretty cool out here when I'm hiking so I usually wear nylon pants and synthetic long undies, but I've been wondering if it would be worth it to treat the nylon pants with a silicon spray to make them more water resistant. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

Someone else will have to try it - I hate rain pants, only have them for warmth, won't wear them until my legs start to feel cold.

I think the rain skirt is better - my guess is that while I was walking around, the heat from my legs dried the fabric of the pants, otherwise they would have been a little damp from all the activity. Adding waterproofness to a breathable fabric doesn't strike me as comfortable. A DWR coating maybe.

I've successfully dried wet synthetics and wool under my quilt at night - in a breathable nylon hammock, under a breathable nylon and down quilt, in temps about 50F, while the rain came pouring down out of the sky. Body heat is a wonderful thing.

If you are on trails and wind is not a big issue, try an umbrella. There are umbrellas made specifically for backpacking- they are light weight and strong.

I wear knee high gaiters. This keeps the parka drips and also protects legs from lingering wet grass without totally covering my upper legs. Also consider chaps. The protect your legs but give you breathing room at the back of your legs.

I have also reconsidered the staying dry idea. If I expect to get wet, I wear only enough to keep warm when walking, and then simply use the raingear more as a wet suit. I have a light weight wool undershirt that works very well. When I get to camp I set up the tent and then change into dry clothes. It is a bit miserable, but I then put the wrung out wet clothes back on in the morning the next day.

I really do not like to backpack in rain, particularly cold rain. Most of my wet backpacking has been on the coast. There have been many times that I have just stayed put inside the tent all day to avoid walking in the rain (particulary if I have to go over a major pass).

True, but the practice insures that you will be fully awake when you hit the trail.....Been there, done that.

I think the marketing for things like rain gear don't do anyone any favors - nor do vague instructions to stay dry and warm. I've made those recommendations too and lately hesitate to be vague any more. I started out with the usual rain jacket labeled with promises of keeping dry and promptly figured out that it was too hot to hike with it on, even with pit zips open, and I was just as soaked anyway. so my usual is to take the GoLite umbrella when I expect rain, and an emergency poncho when I don't expect it. I roll up the emergency poncho and put two rubber bands around it. When it starts to rain I put the poncho over my sun hat and backpack, and rubber band the front of it to the sternum strap of the backpack so I don't overheat. Unless it's really cold, when I pull both hands inside the poncho and use the trekking poles inside it to keep the cold rain off my hands. That also lets the poncho billow out some so there's ventilation.

I put the wet hiking clothes in a plastic bag in my sleeping bag. They won't be dry, but they're warm when I put them on in the morning!

I don't take spare clothes, but I don't wear my base layer while I'm hiking on the trail (unless it's below 0* F/-18*C, in which case I'm home in my warm house!). My base layer top and bottom are therefore my camp/sleeping clothes.

I've thought about an umbrella, but trying to handle trekking poles and my dog's leash plus an umbrella is more than I want to try! I also encounter horizontal rain often enough that the umbrella would be useless, except maybe for flying!

Me neither. I avoid it pretty good by monitoring the weather forecast for a string of warm sunny days with little chance of rain and I'll jump on them if I can.

I've spent hours sitting in a tent waiting out hard rain, and I've been on a few trips where it just never stopped. I do have my limit in those cases and I will get out and damn the wet and explore anyway, but I've really gotten pretty good at avoiding having to do that anymore.

Now, around here, if you can, going just after a few days of hard rain or a long freezing spell can be spectacular. Neither the water or the ice lasts long when it warms up so you have to be quick to really catch the best of it.

Horizontal snow on a ridge was successfully held at bay with my umbrella! The storm was completely unexpected - I brought it for sun, not precipitation - and I collapsed my trekking poles, swapped them for the umbrella, and trudged up the ridge holding it at a 90 degree angle so I could see where I was going. Why would I have anything snow gear on a low elevation coastal hike in May? At least I didn't have flying snow piling up on my face.

You are in a milder climate down there.

Horizontal rain (not snow) is to be expected on Oregon's beaches in May. Just not quite as frequently as in January!

Cotton also works for outwear in extreme cold where rain isn't an issue. Check out the canvas anoraks made by Empire Wool & Canvas Company, for example.
www.empirecanvasworks.com

It sort of depends on what you call bone dry, but the answer is yes of course you can travel for hours in rain and stay "bone dry" against your skin, but you are gonna spend a lot of money on the right gear, which means the right layer next to your skin that passes perspiration and stays "bone dry", next a mid layer perhaps that passes water vapor easily and which allows for easy air flow if your shells are open, and good shells with pit zips that allow air to vent under you arms in a rain and not leak.

25 years ago we climbed up to Little Yosemite Valley in a rain storm - about half a mile up. I was in a new goretex rainsuit by TNF, and long underwear by patagonia and when we got to camp my skin and the patagonia underwear was completely dry. Its about letting enough air through to carry away moisture while retaining enough heat, BUT your body heat is adequate to dry out your geaar from the inside out if you have the right gear.
Jim