Take toilet paper, just in case there isn't any when you get there.

If your friends ask if you'd like to go snipe hunting, say no.

Bring a ton of books. Unless you adore silence, bring an mp3 player and portable speakers.

I hope you love it. Sounds like heaven right now.

Bug Spray! Flashlights!

Doritos!

Avon's Skin So Soft is the best "bug spray" known to man, even though it is not specifically advertised as such.

Snacks. Books. Board games. Good times!

Oh, and layers. It'll get colder at night than what you're used to. Blankets too.

Have a great time! Sounds heavenly. I would go wifi less if I could. Maybe I should just pull the plug on the router for a week.

I have to differ with you, gfm. "Skin so Soft" enjoyed a brief vogue at my crunchy summer camp in the mosquito-ridden swamps of NJ in the early 1990s. We all tried it, the nurse distributed it, and were thrilled to find something nontoxic to use. However, it swiftly, very swiftly, proved to be no match for Off! or any of the other poisionous ones. Facing welts, itching, and impetigo, we went running right back to good ol' toxic chemicals.

Snopes bears our experience out with research:

Mark Fradin and Jonathan Day of the University of Florida tested 17 nationally marketed mosquito repelling products under laboratory conditions. They asked 15 volunteers to stick an arm coated with repellent into a cage containing 10 mosquitos and observed how much time elapsed before the first bite. Products containing DEET repelled best, and the more DEET they contained, the better they worked. Off! Deep Woods, which contains 23.8% DEET, provided the longest-lasting protection: 302 minutes, on average. By contrast, Avon Skin-so-Soft Bath Oil failed after 9.6 minutes, on average.

Still, Avon must have looked to build on the success of the urban legend that it made good bug repellent, as I see they now provide a Skin-so-Soft scented bug spray. This more medical-y article mentions that too:

Skin-So-Soft bath oil received considerable media attention several years ago when some consumers reported it to be effective as a mosquito repellent. When tested under laboratory conditions against Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, this product's effective half-life was 30 minutes. Against Aedes albopictus, Skin-So-Soft oil provided 40 minutes of protection from bites, a duration 10 times less than that of 12.5% DEET [46]. It has been proposed that the limited mosquito repellent effect of Skin-So-Soft oil could be caused by its fragrance or the presence of diisopropyl adipate and benzophenone in the formulation, both of which have some repellent activity [40]. Avon now markets products under the Skin-So-Soft label that contain an EPA-recognized repellent (Table 5).

By all means, wear the bath oil on your skin if you like the way it smells, or how soft it makes your skin. But it won't keep the skeeters away. And because of that camp experiment, during which 100 people went around smelling like the stuff for about 2 weeks, I can't even stand the smell of it any more. One whiff of it on the street brings the whole experience back in vivid detail.

Hmmm. I've had much better luck with SSS than with Off! - especially with horseflies, which are way worse than mosquitoes. *shrugs*

Bring candles! Just in case the power goes out. And please remember that bears can climb trees.

Yah, SSS doesn't work for mosquitos, but does for biting black flies, IME.

Check for ticks regularly.

And leave your campsite in better shape than you found it.

If you go into the woods today, you're in for a big suprise. If you go into the woods today, you won't believe your eyes. Take care, take care in that neck of the woods. Beware, be aware in the woods. Today's the day the teddy bears are having a picnic.

Be on the lookout for giants, princes, and witches.

This is poison ivy. Learn it. Know it. Avoid it. And, for gods' sake, do not, repeat, do not, wipe your ass with it.

Oh man, speaking of wiping your ass... be careful where you pee. I accidentally squatted over a poison oak bush once. The results are exactly what you would think. (Also watch out for poison sumac.) Thankfully, I did not wipe with it, but the following week was not a happy time for the inside of my thighs.

Oh man, speaking of wiping your ass...

Now that's something you don't hear every day.

Now that's something you don't hear every day.

Speak for yourself. I'm a nanny. Ass-wiping came up in conversation with one of my charges just five minutes ago.

There is a point, when going into the woods, where your body and brain still expects to be entertained but you find there is nothing to do. That is the EXACT POINT when you should find a tree to sit under and listen. You don't need to bring anything or do anything. Just listen until you begin to hear.

They were not kidding when they said remote ...yeeesh.

So! Some details. While the cabin is isolated it was built and designed by a single person, a carpenter who also made most of the furnishings ...so the overall effect is rather designy. The a frame and cantilered porch and stone floating fireplace and handmade wooden furnature and period objects make it feel like the studio bedroom version of James Mason's place in North By Northwest. It's like taking a vacation to 1967 - but better cause ..internets.

On that note, I have a vodka martini to drink and a chicken to grill and lots of stars to look at.

Aloe it would appear the friends I'm mooching off of have a crunchy hippie side I never knew about.

Watch out for the guy with the hook hand.

There is a car alarm going off outside my window and I would gladly trade an internal organ or two to join you in that cabin.

Hardly remote, but I went up to VT to visit my folks last weekend and didn't want to come back to "the city." I appear to be returning to my granola hippie mountain woman roots in my old age.

Pips, you have no idea how it saddens me that Sleepaway Camp and Friday the 13th are not available for instant streaming.

Brave man.

(you hear that?)