Nineteen posts and no one has mentioned S’MORES?!!???!
You heathens.
Sequin cocktail dress, platinum Marilyn Monroe wig, silver stiletto heels…
Wait, wrong kind of camping…
You might want to take along a couple of garbage bags for waste and what not. They also are useful for toting your dirty and wet clothes or can double as a rain poncho in a pinch.
My group used to also add in either cream corn or cream of mushroom soup as well.
Oh and Banana Boats are GREAT stuff I remember eating those… mmmm…
Sometimes I think we should have a sort of Girl Guide/Scout camping DopeFest. That might be fun 
The crew has pretty well covered the bases but I thought of a few minor things that might be useful:
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Even though you’ll have a fridge it’s very useful to prepare and pre-measure food in advance, stored in sealed baggies or small plastic containers. It makes food prep much easier, and you won’t have to take along big boxes of things. Chop onions and put them in a baggie, pre-measure dry pancake mix into a baggie, etc. Put pancake syrup into a small bottle, swipe some fast-food packets of salt and pepper, pre-make hamburger patties and wrap in foil–do just as much of the prep work at home as possible. Then you won’t have to hassle with it later, or rely on dull knives, no cutting board, etc., not to mention not having to tote back all the leftovers.
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Easy hot subs: slightly hollow out firm sub rolls, layer with cheeses, meats, etc. of your choice. Slather on a bit of spaghetti sauce or whatever suits. Double-wrap in foil, sealing the edges; take along in cooler. Put them on the edges of the grill, near the heat but not right over top flames. Turn a couple of times, until warmed through, unwrap and eat, licking your elbows as required. Great for easy, no-fuss hot lunches or snacks. (They can also be heated up on a hot car manifold for “road food.”)
Man, I miss camping, though I went the tent route. But by all means take bug spray, preferably Cutters. Have fun!
Veb
Take your dern sunscreen with you and avoid being sunburned and the subsequent potential skin cancer(s). Wear a hat when you are outdoors. Long sleeves and gloves, too, but I know you won’t listen. Have fun.
Oh how I miss camping.
Several things that come to the mind of an old Eagle Scout.
- A comprehensive 1st aid kit.
- A travel bottle of mouthwash (makes for a keen disinfectant in a pinch)
- Dish soap. Now here’s a little trick. If you’re planning on open fire cooking, and don’t want sooted up pans, take a dollop of dish soap, and smear it all over the pan bottom, the soot washes right off.
- The foil dinners and the apple thing are awesome, what memories! Stop at your local camping/sporting goods store, and ask 'em to find you a good pie iron. It’ll run you about 12 bucks. You take the irons, get some bread, butter it ala grilled cheese style, put it on either side of the pan, and add your favorite filling. Pie filling, spaghetti sauce and grilled cheese, what ever. Stick 'em into the fire until you can hear the sizzle, then flip over, then (carefully) open the iron, and drop the pie out, it’s gonna be hot, so be careful, but enjoy. Great stuff!
- If you’re feeling adventurous, an absolutely EXCELLENT fire starter combines a slurry of melted wax and saw dust poured into a fiber/paper egg crate, then cut into individual fire starters. (even wax on rolled newspapers works like the dickens.
- Bug Spray, Bug Spray, Bug Spray, and Bug Spray.
- A sharp knife, or better yet multi tool, is essential.
- Since you’re staying in a cabin, bring glue. Trust me.
- A quick get away breakfast is hard boiled eggs and instant oatmeal. One pan, same water, bam, you’re done.
- Sunblock. Cannot. Forget. Sunblock.
- Again, since you’re staying in a cabin, you can bring extra water and store it safely. A case should do it.
Don’t bring too much crap with ya to occupy your time, let nature do that. A good walking stick is nearly essential, but not absolutely necessary. Enjoy yourself. Enjoy yourself for me.
I miss camping 
All of this sounds like a lot of fun. Except, um, a cord of wood? They’re going camping for a weekend, not bunking in for the winter. A cord of wood is(I checked just to make sure I wasn’t going insane) 4 foot x 4 foot x 8 foot.
An alternative to sawdust: dryer lint (the rest of the above the same). Makes great firestarters. That’s what my son, the Boy Scout, has used to make his.
hehe :smack: That’s probably a good point. My family and friends have always used cord mean ‘The amount of wood needed if it’s more than a couple pieces’ So it can be from one gas station bundle, upto a whole truckbed full. I always forget it has an exact meaning.
You gotta have a beanie. You lose a great deal of body heat through your head. A good waterproof jacket is essential. It’s also good to have multiple layers of clothing, and to avoid cotton as much as possible (cotton takes a very long time to dry if it gets wet).
I would reccomend getting Top Ramen for food. It’s quick, simple, cheap, and I personally think it tastes pretty good.
This is probably some of the best advice yet. The fun of camping is a balance between being prepared and getting away from everything.
The times I’ve erred the worst were on the side of toting along too much stuff. (A small bottle of tent seam sealer when camping in a torrential downpour doesn’t qualify as “too much” though.)
Since you’ll be in a cabin, you’re main concerns are to 1. sleep dry and comfy, 2. stay physically comfortable amidst all that nature (i.e. bug spray, etc.) and 3. have enough good stuff to eat. Half the fun is improvising around the unusual conditions.
If you wanted all the comforts of home you’d stay home, and hauling around too much stuff just saps the fun right outta the experience.
Just do reasonable preparation, then GO.
When in doubt, err on the side of going light. You’ll have more fun (less fuss), and the post-holiday unpacking, cleaning up, etc. will be much less depressing.
Veb
ummm, hope it’s not too late being saturday now, but you’ll need to start the fire with something. Preferrably matches or a lighter as opposed to rubbing sticks together. Yes, and Beer, whiskey, cigarettes and a geetar.
Guns and Ammo
Fishing gear
and yeah, a cord sounds about right 
One thing I’ve seen be successful at campouts were these campout sandwich-makers. It’s basically this little device where you put in bread and whatever you want, and clamp it between two metal plates and use the long metal handles to use it over the fire. Bring toppings - things like cheddar cheese, meats (if you eat meat), or do pizza toppings with mozarella and tomato sauce. Everyone can put together their own! They’re inexpensive.
Basically like this thing, though I’ve seen them for less money.
I do quite a bit of camping. Every year I go fly fishing with a couple of guys for 8-12 days.
Here is what I take for booze:
I always bring at least 1 bottle of red wine per day (minimum 1 case). Usually a 60 pounder of rye, a 40 pounder of Bailey’s and a couple dozen beer.
Here are some more items:
- Pistachio nuts
- Sun flower seeds
- A good book
- Camera
- Journal
- Map of the area where you’re going
Enjoy the weekend!
MtM
For those of us not on the metric system, is there a conversion for “60 pounds” :eek: of rye?
Seriously, if you ever come to Montana to fly fish, I want to camp with you guys. It sounds like we outfit camp the same way. Do you also try to outcook each other? I won last year with blackened prime rib, garlic mashed potatos and corn on the cob with cajun butter.
Two other notes: baby wipes - get the lemon scented ones in the round container, put them in a baggie and throw them in the cooler. A nice, cool lemon scented face wipe is a true pleasure.
One way to make a clothesline without clothespins is to stretch the rope tightly from point A to point B. Then repeatedly wrap the running end of the rope around the first line back to point A and pull tight. You can then use the tight wraps to hold the clothes up without clothespins.
Whistlepig
Thanks everyone. I should have started this thread sooner. Most of your ideas came after we had already left.
Thanks to the campsites website, I pretty much knew what I didn’t have to bring. The cabin came with linens for the bed, utensils, pots and pans, dishes, a dorm fridge, a microwave, a toaster and a hot plate. I did bring toilet paper but we didn’t need it. There was plenty in the bathroom.
Here’s a little rundown of our weekend.
I did all the planning because Mr. Congo works for a cable station and there was a Pawtucket Red Sox game going. He didn’t get back until late Friday. I did all the packing and we did our food shopping after he got home. We got steaks, kielbasa dogs, soda, a mixed pack of chips, marshmallows, chocolate bars, matches, funny bones and a few other random things.
I did pack some Ramen noodles in case Mr. Congo’s sinuses acted up. That stuff is a great decongestant. We also had Tylenol Sinus, Advil and tampons. I didn’t need them but they did come in handy later.
Before we left on Friday, we stopped at Home Depot to buy a small propane grill.
We got to the campsite (Bonnie Brae in Pitssfield MA) around 2:30. We checked right in and unloaded our perishables. We started trying to light a fire around 3:00. At 4:30, I asked one of the owners if there was a trick I didn’t know about. He gave me a Duraflame log. Around 4:45, we were well on our way to having a roaring fire. It was time to get out the grill. It needed to be assembled (we somehow missed that part when we bought it). Mr. Congo had brought his Leatherman tool. It came in very handy. After we finally assembled the grill, it was time to test the propane can connection for leaks. I had the soapy water but I didn’t have anything to put it on the connection. I ended up cutting the tip off a tampon and fanning it out a bit. It worked perfectly. There were no leaks so we started heating up the grill. We had bar-b-qued kielbasa dogs and baked beans for dinner. We spent the rest of the night sitting next to the fire, smoking and eating marshmallows. We played Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit (I won).
Around 10:30, our neighbors pulled in. They had 5 kids and grandma in tow. It was about 30° outside and they didn’t have a fire going. I gave them our stick lighter and part of our duraflame log so they could get it going faster. They were very nice people from Rhode Island.
Anyway, we went to bed around 1:00. We got up around 10:00 Sunday morning. I had a nice time sitting in the front yard, reading Dune and smoking. I started up the grill again and cooked some bacon and corned beef hash (in a little cast iron frying pan). It was excellent.
After breakfast, we went to Balance Rock State Park to see - guess what - the balancing rock. It was cool but it would have been cooler if it wasn’t covered in graffitti.
After that, we went up to Mount Greylock. It took us about half an hour to drive up to the summit. At the summit, is the Veterans War Memorial. If you go to the top, you’ll be at the highest point in Massachusetts. You can see 4 states from there (VT, NH, CT and NY). It was very clear so we could see everything. Talk about breathtaking. The only setback was the claustrophobia that set in right after we got to the top. I almost ran back down the stairs. It took me about 10 minutes to get over it. We had lunch in the lodge. The food was excellent. I had a hot dog and Mr. Congo had a ham sandwich. The sandwich was made with homemade bread and real sliced ham.
After we left the mountain, we went back to the campsite and started up the fire again. We played two games of LOTR Trivial Pursuit. Mr. Congo won the first one and I won the second in less than 15 minutes
We had bar-b-qued steak for dinner and roasted lots and lots of marshmallows.
We went to bed a little after 12:00.
This was, without a doubt, the most relaxing weekend I’ve had in a very long time. The smell of the clean air and the trees was invigorating. We’ll most definitely be doing this again soon.
Glad you had an excellent time. Camping IS fun.
And please don’t take offense, but this cracked me up:
“If you go to the top, you’ll be at the highest point in Massachusetts. . . . I almost ran back down the stairs.”
The idea of going to the highest point in a state, on stairs. 
Whistlepig
Sorry “pounder” is probably a Canadian tem.
A “60 Pounder” would be a 60 ounce bottle and a “40 pounder” would be a 40 ounce.
Funny though, we call a 24 ounce bottle “Two Six”. They are 750 ml which equals 24 ounces, maybe they used to be bigger?
MtM