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Since I mentioned that I would write something about my first foray into a gay campground, a couple of you have written to me asking if I still planned on writing about that experience.

Here are my impressions:

We stayed at Hillside Campground in northern Pennsylvania. The camp has been there since, as far as I know, the 1980s. This means that they’ve been doing it enough years that they do most everything correctly. All seems to run like clockwork.

It also means that many of the campers with permanent sites (so-called “perms”) have been there since the 1980′s and many of them are elderly.

Now, I’ve never understood the aversion to elderly people that is so prevalent in American society. I’m neither bothered nor repulsed by elderly men (or women, for that matter). But much of the conversation at Hillside seems to revolve around who’s died lately, which can be kind of sad when you’re on vacation.

Back to that notion of “perms.” There are three main types of Hillside attendees: day trippers who just show up to pay a daily fee to swim or hike or whatever; people who pay to rent camp sites large and small for a week or weekend (this is what Scott and I did in a tent site); and “perms” — the people who have permanent sites on which they have parked RVs, campers, or built small cabins to which many of them seem to come nearly every weekend when the campgrounds are open during the summer and early Fall.

Once you are in the enclosed private campgrounds environs, it is all clothing-optional. So be prepared to have naked men of varying ages come around the corner or out of the woods at any moment. It’s jarring at first, but you get used to it. You do not have to be nude; we weren’t and most people are wearing at least shorts and flip-flops. It can be disorienting to have a good-morning conversation with a totally nude stranger about the weather, etc. (What do you look at? Their chest? The woods? Your feet?) Again, you adjust.

Things I did learn about some nudists I saw:

1. Some of them don’t put down towels to sit on when they drive their cars nude. This surprised me.
2. When they apply suntan lotion, they really do not miss a single spot. Use your imagination on this.
3. When nudists dance at a disco, it’s hard not to watch their junk flopping about.

Would I go back? Certainly.

The people are nice and there is a relaxed vibe that lends itself to a stress-free weekend.

On the other hand, there is another gay campground down the road a bit called Oneida— Pennsylvania appears to be the world headquarters of gay campgrounds, for what reason(s) I cannot say — and Oneida seems to get a different crowd than Hillside. So we may try that next time, just to do something different.

One final question I’ve gotten from a couple of straight friends: Why a gay campground? The chief reason is that these places were started back in the early ’80s when the world was much less accepting than it is now. Much of the world is still not very accepting, as we all know.

I think it’s mostly a matter that you can go camping with your same-sex friends or loved ones and not worry about being attacked in the middle of the night after the people at a neighboring campsite discover you’re two gay men. We felt completely safe. And that is the point of camping: relaxation.

Finally: while Oneida does allow female campers, Hillside is men only.

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