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Snake Chaps and Gaiters 

One item that should be in every gold prospectors possession in the southwestern US is snake chaps or snake gaiters. This goes for many other areas of the US and world as well. Here in Arizona and much of the southwest for that matter there are a variety of rattlesnakes and cacti that can really do a number on your lower legs while you are hiking the hills in search of the gold. Snake chaps are like full length pants and have an open front and rear, they attach to your belt. From my experience these are very hot, I found wearing them with surf board shorts was best. Wearing them with Levis was just too hot for me. The big advantage of chaps is depending on which ones you buy you will get full length protection from ankle to thigh. Again these are not for me but might work for you.

Snake gaiters are much more light weight and offer less length protection but are my choice and much easier to walk with. As with snake chaps you have to get the right size, snake gaiters simply go around your calves and buckle together with a plastic buckle. Snake gaiters usually come with some type of foot flap that covers the top of your foot as well, much less common on snake chaps. After long hikes the gaiters will tend to spin a bit and come loose so the foot flap hangs off to the side, you can simply put a twist in the buckle strap to help prevent this but in heavily brushy areas it they will still rotate. One easy fix for this is to put a plastic rivet type hole in the foot flap and use a plastic wire tie to keep the foot flap on your foot in place. Regardless of if they spin or not your ankles all the way to your thighs will still be covered. You can also tighten them now and then if needed.

The two pictures below show the difference between snake chaps and snake gaiters. Click the pictures to enlarge

Here I am in the LSD wearing snake chaps in the spring of 2001.                                                                                  

Here I am near Bagdad, AZ wearing a very worn out set of snake gaiters. Notice the left foot flap moving as described above.