VALLONIA
Reserving a camping slot at Starve Hollow State Recreation Area over Memorial Day weekend has become as competitive as placing the winning bid in an auction for a desirable item minutes before time’s up or buying concert tickets for a Rolling Stones reunion tour.
The winners of this campsite lottery determined to preserve family traditions sat hunched over their computers in small groups, computers and other electronic devices at the ready six months ago, poised to press keys the moment the Indiana Department of Natural Resources unlocked the window to reservations.
“We had to,” said Rebecca Rehfuss, a member of an extended Greenfield family that somehow obtained camping sites next to one another for the entire holiday week.
Mimicking the position they held, glancing at watches on wrists, Ashley Rehfuss said, “We sat there like this,” waiting for time to tick down to “go.”
Camping at state locations in bus-sized RVs, campers towed by cars and pickup trucks or in tents has become wildly popular across the Hoosier State, not only at Starve Hollow, especially over the busiest weekend of the season, Memorial Day, the so-called kickoff to summer.
Starve Hollow has a 145-acre lake for fishing, boating and swimming. There is a sandy beach, playgrounds with jungle gyms and the like for children, hiking trails, paved areas for bicycle riding, campsites with hookups and those without, cabins to rent and spots for small fires, all surrounded by woods in an area spread over 280 acres and set back from any major road, ensuring quiet.
The DNR website describing Starve Hollow says it offers “some of the best camping in southern Indiana.” Starve Hollow is kid-friendly, family-welcoming and outdoorsy favorable.
“We were full six months ago for this weekend,” said Cassie Stilwell, assistant property manager for Starve Hollow. “We’ve been full since March for weekends all summer. That’s what we found to be the case the last few years. The days are gone of showing up and grabbing a weekend spot.”
This is symbolic of an explosion of American interest in camping, in part sparked in two ways by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Some 15 months ago, the United States was shutting down, people ordered to stay at home as protection from the spreading deadly coronavirus.
A few months later when restrictions loosened, many realized they could social distance in the great outdoors, so they began flooding national, state and local parks.
Now with almost all restrictions lifted, the only masks to be seen at Starve Hollow were worn by state employees and at indoor facilities such as the Nature Center. The campground was the site of freedom to mingle.
Desperate to get away, it was projected 37 million Americans planned to travel at least 50 miles from home over the Memorial Day holiday with the endorsement of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, provided people were vaccinated.
It also was projected that 18 million Americans were going camping over that weekend. Kampgrounds of America predicts 2021 will be its busiest season on record and 4 million people will go camping for the first time.
An appropriate share of those millions chose Starve Hollow to hang out over Memorial Day. But there are only 53 full hookup sites, 87 electric sites, 10 nonelectric sites and 18 cabins on the premises. Prices range roughly between $35 and $47, and the resident park entry fee is $7.
Many Starve Hollow campers are regulars, and not just for Memorial Day.
Randy and Sherry Smith of Westfield come a few times a year. They were on the premises in 2020 when the place shut down in response to coronavirus dangers.
“We got thrown out during COVID,” Randy said.
Despite the multiplying reservation challenges, this was a comparatively soothing visit.
“It’s crazy,” he said.
Fun for all ages
Saturday morning of Memorial Day weekend dawned cloudy and cool. Even by midday, there was no hint of sun, and the temperature was 53 degrees. Only two days earlier, it was in the high 80s.
Many people cracked it was a typical Indiana springtime of extreme swings, and Sierra Jackson, DNR interpretive naturalist, said, “It’s not like our usual 85.”
Swimmers were scarce. Anglers found fish elusive, perhaps shaken up by the dramatic weather change. Kayakers were more active.
Evan Stahl, 13, of Brownstown and Hunter Kilby, 11, of Brown County fished from a dock off and on over hours. They had tackle boxes they hoped would provide for any conditions but discovered most fish were on holiday.
Kilby hooked one fish. “I caught one behind our camper,” he said.
Stahl said he landed a bluegill and a bass but not one large enough to grill for dinner. Sounding like the sage veteran, given he fishes all summer, Stahl said, “You’ve got to be patient.”
Planned activities for youngsters were uninterrupted. Kids roamed from camping sites on bicycles or holding parents’ hands climbing over playground equipment.
They also played catch with small balloons filled with water, and Jackson supervised a sand castle-building competition. Five structures were formed during the 15-minute construction time limit, and moats proved popular supplementary design elements.
Sophia March, 9, said, “I haven’t made one of these in a long time.” March was undeterred by smudging sand and mud on her tights and dress. “I don’t care about mud.”
Gary Coffman, 8, produced a solid-looking castle, leading to the question of whether or not he would become a professional in the construction field.
“Apparently yes,” he said.
Jackson gazed at this veritable subdivision of sand castles and diplomatically said, “I think you’re all awesome.”
Sisters Allea Bechert, 7, and Allison, 6, were proclaimed the winners. The Becherts are members of a four-generation family from Bedford ranging in age from them to those in their 70s. They had a heck of a computer time booking five campsites but pulled it off to keep their tradition going.
Making its debut appearance at Starve Hollow, as it tours the state this summer for the first time, is the Woods on Wheels mobile nature exhibit, bringing tree education to young people, partly through the auspices of DNR, partly through the auspices of Purdue University.
The emphasis is on Indiana tree types, sizes and exhibits, including showing what kinds of wood go into the making of selected products, such as furniture.
A hardwood economic development specialist for the Division of Forestry, Sara High is the human traveling with the wheels.
“Anywhere and everywhere,” she said.
The unit teaches tool through video, still photos and hands-on coloring for children, who can use nature-related stencils to draw pictures. The Bechert sisters, fresh off of their sand castle championship, tried it out.
Allison drew a multicolored log. Allea was told her animal might be a hedgehog, but she preferred labeling it a porcupine.
Other clan members, and Kaiden Richardson, 15, and cousins, who have made this pilgrimage for years, visited a wall near the Nature Center that features images of bird species and the lengths of their wingspans.
The young people flattened their bodies against the wall, face inward, and spread their arms. Richardson, who is 6-foot-3, measured in at 78 inches, or the same wingspan as a blue heron.
They do this every year. It’s a growth chart of sorts. One 15-year-old said when she first spread her wings, she reached 48 inches, or the same as a red tail hawk. Now, she is at 66 inches, or as wide as a Canada gray goose.
Coping with cold
Sherry Smith of Westfield reclined in a comfy chair defying the unseasonably 50s temperatures or at least fighting back.
Wrapped in a blanket that represented the top layer of five and her feet toasting by a pleasant fire, she still enjoyed her favorite camping spot.
The Smiths parked a generous-sized RV on one of their regular Starve Hollow trips, and she said she has been visiting the park for 50 years, or since she was 10.
“It’s a nice, quiet park,” Randy Smith said. “This park’s small enough you can walk around the whole camping place.”
Schaan Lamaster of Seymour and his family often join the Smiths here. Lamaster was not as heavily dressed as Sherry Smith but wasn’t cold given the aid of the sizzling fire.
It is less than 20 miles from Seymour to Starve Hollow, making the park a close escape from him, though of different sort of geography than the city. Lamaster likes not having to drive far.
“That’s the best thing,” he said.
Small fires were commonplace on a day that did not seem likely to hit 60 degrees, and Sherry Smith was not the only camper modeling blanket attire.
Rebecca and Ashley Rehfuss of the Greenfield group made good use of covers that more often adorn beds, and they had a good fire crackling, as well.
They first visited Starve Hollow last year, liked it and began making regular stops.
“It’s a nice, country, woodsy, friendly campground,” said Rebecca, who noted she was protected by “too many to count” warming layers. “The first time we went for a walk, it took us more than an hour because everyone stopped us to talk.”
The mountain men of lore might think it amusing city dwellers camp for pleasure and go to the woods for holiday getaways. But they would likely be astonished and laugh at the massive homes-on-wheels RVs that shield travelers from the elements.
Recreational vehicles can come in the size of school buses or Mack trucks. They have mushroomed in popularity, especially among older people who feel they have aged out of sleeping on the hard ground.
Remember tents? There had to be at least 10 or 15 vehicles on the property for every tent.
Elizabeth Pace, 34, of Bedford said she has camped since she was 10, and she is perfectly fine still snoozing in a tent. She maintains the purity of the experience, even if she doesn’t lay her back directly on rocky ground, but does use an air mattress without regret or with envy of vehicle camping.
“I’m still good,” Pace said, saying there were five members of her party in tents and the rest in RVs. For the adults who say “Not me” anymore to sleeping in a tent, closer to nature, Pace has a reply.
“I’d tell them not to be sissy girls,” she said.