Bundling up for summer in Baxter Hundreds form early morning lines to reserve campsites in state park

MILLINOCKET – Dozens lined up their tents and lawn chairs in a glare-ice parking lot to spend a frigid New Year’s, then awoke at the crack of dawn to stand in line.

Everywhere snaked lines for coffee, lines for the bathroom, and lines for that slip of green paper that made it all worthwhile – a reservation to camp at Baxter State Park in 2003.

Wednesday night into the wee hours Thursday, more than 70 people camped in 4 degree weather and gusty winds to be first outside the Heritage Motor Inn, the site of what could be Baxter’s last “opening day.”

This spring, the Baxter State Park Authority will consider changing its traditional first-come, first-serve system, most likely to some kind of rolling registration that would space out the crowds to make it easier for park staff to handle registration paperwork.

Every Jan. 2, hundreds of hopeful hikers and campers have lined up to guarantee that special campsite or cabin. This year, the tally topped 200 people by 8 a.m., and every one had a story.

One man climbs Mount Katahdin with his son every Father’s Day. A family gathers four generations for a reunion at Kidney Pond each summer.

For two women from eastern Massachusetts, just getting the reservation was an adventure. Emily Patton and Kate Koschoreck drove through the night – with a quick stop at L.L. Bean – to reach Millinocket at 2:30 a.m. They struggled to set up a tent, which behaved more like an ice boat on the skating-rink parking lot. Someone had to sit in the tent at all times to act as ballast, the women said.

“It was probably 5 degrees out there, but with the gusty wind, it felt like it was about negative 30,” Patton said, breaking into a proud grin. “But it’s a ritual. I’d do it again. I’ll just wear five layers of clothes instead of three.”

“It’s amazing,” agreed Dean Bailey, who traveled from Auburn to camp out. “You meet people from all over. You swap stories. This is the first year I’ve slept.”

Duffy Akerley, a 13-year opening day veteran from Bar Harbor, was first in line this year, arriving bright and early Wednesday morning.

“It’s not really so bad,” he said stoically, taking down his tent at about 7:30 a.m. Thursday. “It’s become kind of a social event. Besides, it could be that one person in front of you who gets what you want.”

As the registration line moved inside the inn, the campers, now sweating in their cocoons of wool and fleece, said that a perfect summer night in the park was well worth long hours in the cold, and even longer hours spent following the four-step registration procedure.

“It seems awful at the time, but when summer comes, it’s just so beautiful here,” said Pam Redick, of Webster, Mass., who arrived at 2:45 a.m. with her husband, John.

“You have to suffer a little bit, and that’s fine. It seems like you ought to earn it,” she said.

Proponents hope the rolling registration system under consideration would make campground and cabin registrations easier to acquire because the crowd would be distributed among several small registration days. For example, on Jan. 2, only May dates could be reserved, in early February, only June dates could be reserved, and so on. Someone who wanted to camp in multiple months would have to attend multiple registration days.

Rick Theriault of Brewer worried, however, that a rolling registration system would be unfair for those who can’t take time away from their jobs to keep returning to Millinocket, and thus could favor commercial outfitters over Maine families.

“I think it’s contrary to what Percival Baxter wanted. He wanted this park to be free for the common man,” Theriault said.

Others loved the idea of reserving their campsites for the busy late summer season during warmer weather, but worried that less imposing temperatures would boost the number of hopefuls.

Some liked the idea of online registrations, but feared such a system could be open to abuse, or result in what is essentially a lottery system, should everyone log on at the same moment.

With lots of time to chat, campers also developed creative solutions, such as a backward rolling registration in which the busiest months would be booked during chilly winter months, a special day for Mainers to make early registrations, or a points system so that longtime park users could earn the right to be favored in the registration process.

Regardless of what system the authority decides to pursue, however, these people will do whatever it takes to earn their beloved campsites, they said.

“Baxter is paradise,” said Theriault, who has camped out to reserve a cabin in the park for eight years. “In August, this doesn’t seem foolish at all.”