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A kettle and teapot (and well...tea leaves too).

Lots of extra clothes.

I forgot syrup for pancakes. The trip back to town was not very far! We keep a camp box that has all our kitchen/shower needs in it and we go through it every time we get ready to take off camping. I also once forgot my pillow. I am very partial to it and always bring it on my road trips.

Bug repellent in June. Bad, bad, idea.

Me want bacon now.

Camping for us growing up required jet-puft rainbow marshmallows (my borthers and I fought in the dark for the chocolate ones!) , hot dogs, beer or as a joke, wine coolers (for my parents and we got to melt the glass in the fire later and pull it out in the morning when it cooled) and Jiffy Pop.

Our family used to camp when i was younger...and we always seemed to forget a pancake turner. We would be midway through frying the eggs, bacon on the grill and pancake batter ready to go...and someone would ask where it was.

when i have a family, i will be the 'list lady' that ensures we have everything.

Tarps and ropes!! It's not a real camping trip unless it pours rain at least one night.

simmons beautyrest mattress. maybe i'm high maintenance?

http://portlandsunshine.blogspot.com/2010/07/beautyrest.html

Don't go camping, period. I was forced to do it all the time as a child. Still shivering at the memory.

I once was on a backpacking trip and our hand-crank water filter broke the morning of the last day! Luckily, it was just as we had gotten everyone's water bottles filled... except the camp counselors. They had to drink theirs with iodine tablets.

Now, when I camp, I make sure I'm going somewhere with, if not running water, than at least a water pump.
And a case of Grain Belt Premium for when I'm at dive camp. (I'm a recreational scuba diver, and routinely go camping and diving with a group.)

LOL @ nikki. i hear ya!!

a hotel reservation.

It has been a rare camping trip that I haven't had to bum a can opener from a neighbor...
One time I wore my swimsuit and forgot to pack any bras. That's not something you can really borrow from your fellow backpacker. :)
On our most recent trip to Mount Rainier, I forgot spoons. My husband made tracks to arrive by closing time at the general store, and heard "Handle With Care" by the Traveling Wilburys on the radio on the way home. He arrived back at the site with spoons, singing that song, and now every time we hear it we think of that night.

My battered old perk coffee pot, accompanied by freshly ground French roast sealed tight in a plastic bag, was always a must on any camping trip. Now that Starbucks has come out with a passable instant coffee I just boil up some water and mix. So call me lazy.

A flashlight. It doesn't always rain, but it always gets dark.

I'll never forget the time I forgot my cigarettes. I didn't realize it until I was 45 driving minutes, and an hour hike in... needless to say, its ONE way to quit cold turkey!

Wow. No one actually seems to rough it on this message board! I pack the same things everytime, but I would never leave without my headlamp. Now all I need is a rain jacket, a MSR Titan + Guyout MicroBites, Travel sized Wet Ones, Hunter boots a water bottle and a hammock.

Pepper spray. If you're going camping in an area with a bear population, it's some protection. Hearing in the news lately of some horrific bear attacks, one person saved his life by using pepper spray.

Ditto can opener, or at least a swiss army knife with that tool. Zip ties, a sharpie, a length of rope and several large garbage bags.

Moleskin and scissors.

A bag of marshmallows makes a nice pillow.

An extra dry washcloth or hand towel in a ziploc. Clean socks that you save for the last day - in a ziploc.

More ziplocs - one filled with air also makes a nice pillow.

What @kirsjten said... a hotel reservation.

A Sherpa who carries your stuff and cooks and makes camp.

I'm going camping this weekend! I will try not to forget my swiss army knife, my raincoat and rainpants, baby wipes, headlamps, little msr camp stove, food, tent, sleeping bags, and my toothbrush/toothpaste.

I always forget my pillow but it's never a big deal - that's what extra clothes are for.

I will gladly visit your campsite, help cook over the fire, hang out and then go back to my nearby motel.

We went tent camping and my friend scoffed at the tightly rolled heavy blanket I snuck in -- until he realized that he had forgotten to bring a short rake to smooth the ground where the tent would sit. Thanks to my blanket, we didn't have to sleep on small sticks, bumps, and lumps all night!

A reality show camera crew.

Kayak camping for 6 weeks solo taught me a lot about camping light. I couldn't have suffered through some of the dried/freeze dried foods without my bag of M & M's as a chaser. Matches, too. Driftwood fires on the beach several times a week kept me whole.

@ veslabeachgirl - Jealous! I will try in the Boundary Waters.

a man servant and a land yacht

Jack Twist. Don't go camping without Jack Twist. 8^)

UMMM... Seems really obvious to me... BEER!!!!

When I was a teenager, we used to always bring a can of Van Kamp's Pork and Beans to cook over the fire. I don't know why, but those beans were practically our mascot.

Raincoats are a big one. On our honeymoon, which was supposed to be a five-day canoe trip, my husband and I realized that what we thought was a package of two ponchos was actually a poncho and plastic pants. We laughed about how each of us could be half dry... then tied our canoe to a tree and hitchhiked to the nearest cabin after two straight days of rain. As my husband said later, "I've never been so happy to watch 'Antiques Roadshow' in my life."

head lamp....don't know what I ever did without that thing!

Just remember Cabin #17, and your favorite food and drink.

wet wipes (as in baby wipes) and a couple bandanas to cover one's head and/or neck.

More beer than you think you will need...nothing worse than running out early in the evening and every store is closed/every person is a little over the driving limit. While drinking that beer in the evening, I like to do a little planning ahead to the next morning and think about whats for breakfast. Pre-chop potatoes, put all your ingredients in one cooler, and then in the morning it will be much less of a task to prepare a delicious hangover soothing meal.

oh, and paper towels or rags. I feel like I'm always scrambling around trying to find something to wipe up something with.

lauren84: totally agreed on the beer! I just got back from a camping trip where we had just enough beer to last us... any less and it would have been a disaster!

I always forget flashlights and this year... forgot toothpaste as well. Luckily we were only camping a few minutes from town so we could go home and get our forgotten stuff!

Just don't go camping. Ever.

Lol. That made me laugh. I too have experienced forgetting our matches. =P

I had one experience that I went for a fishing trip and ran into some campers. They were high school students who got dropped off by their parents, but they forgot to bring any water! And they'd been there for a whole day and a half. They'd ask me if we had any extra water. Unfortunately we didn't bring that much water since we were just checking the area and the weather. All I had was Frozen/melting vitamin water the strawberry kiwi kind. After that I was told they got hooked on it.

Another one of my camping events has to do with OVERPACKING. We hauled a five gallon container of water five miles, not to mention lots of beer and a gallon of vodka, plus just way too many things. And a giant cooler for all our food and drinks.

My friend's younger brother had even commented when we left, "Hey guys, you guys are going camping. Not moving away to college." Lol.

Me and my friends felt like mules carrying so much stuff. Only one of our friends was smart enough just to bring the essentials, one backpack for him. We got lost so we ended up five miles away from the camp site with so much heavy stuff. Three days later we carried everything back in one trip, it was awful though. We traveled hung over with excessive things to carry. =( But we learned to just pack the necessities. We had to make two trips to get our stuff to the campsite.

Wow, most everyone here car-camps or canoes straight to their sites?! Where are the backpackers and the hardcore portaging types?

I seriously consider my camping luxury to be extra toilet paper! Like at least twice as much as I think I'll need. I start counting my squares the week before the trip and round up just in case.

Plus, I'm not sure if I even understand the point of car-camping anymore ever since a worthless college camping trip with girls who packed suitcases filled with make-up and curling irons. They were dismayed that I hadn't done the same...not that there would have been room for my stuff in the car if I had.

I thought about this some more and have to add that I love my Therm-a-rest Trail Lite pad. It adds an extra 2lbs to my load but I'd be miserable without it. Well, that and TP.