It is important to get used to hiking in rain, because eventually you will be doing it. It can be fun, but it does add more risk. I was doing it today over the summit of Mt. Greylock. The key to hiking in rain is to stay warm, not dry. If your hiking in rain all day you are going to get wet, all of what you are wearing will get wet, gore-tex or no gore-tex. In warm summer rain, you can comfortably hike in just a t-shirt ( I assume you always wear some sort of pant!) Put rain gear on that day and you will be wet from sweat. Some days, however, one can not stay warm with just a t-shirt under rain gear. I think it is important to have a long sleeve warmer shirt, eg. long underwear crew neck top, to wear when your t-shirt is just not keeping you warm under raingear. The shirt should be one which you can afford to get wet. In other words, it is not the shirt you are counting on to be dry to keep you warm in camp at the end of the day. Another consideration is keeping your hands warm. For example, my hands were so cold today, I could not grip a zipper. I could not put enough pressure on a ziplock to tighten the cord for my hood, yet the actual temp was probably in the 50's, not 40s or freezing, just wet, windy and cold. If I had fallen and injured myself, so that I could not walk, I would have been an immediate candidate for hypothermia. In short, the next time you go for a hike in the rain, ask yourself, "If I had to stay in one place because of injury, do I have enough with me to stay dry and warm until help arrives? " You know you are really hiking in rain, if you are walking right through the mud and puddles on the trail and not noticing it, or better yet you are walking through the puddles and mud and enjoying it!
