User Review: REI Men's Ultra Light Jacket

It's not often that I use rain gear, let alone actually enjoy the experience. For the most part I usually will just get wet, since I enjoy the cool down that comes with light rain and since I tend to over-heat with or without rain gear on.

On a recent day hike I decided to throw this jacket in my pack since the weather forecast called for temps in the 50's, wind gusts of up to 40 mph, and a good chance of some serious rain. I have to say that I'm very glad that I had this jacket with me.

When I arrived at the trailhead the rain was coming down pretty hard, so I immediately put this jacket on and for the entire 8 miles it didn't come off. My base-layer shirt was a short sleeve polyester shirt, and the combination worked very nicely for me.

My day hike that day was primarily through wooded areas of varying densities. There were times when I would only get a little bit of rain fall and other times when I would get dumped on. Even when the front zipper was entirely zipped the jacket felt very breathable. When I wasn't getting dumped on taking the front zipper halfway down really helped to open things up.

One thing that I really enjoyed about this jacket is that the sleeves had zippers that ran up about 4 inches from the ends of the sleeve. I found this feature useful for when I wanted to roll my sleeves up to help get rid of some heat.

Overall I enjoyed using this jacket, which surprised me, and would definitely recommend it to others. Not only was it very useful while hiking in the rain, but I can also get it to pack very compactly in my bag.

side note: I used the men's model