Local woman proves camping is not just for the young
Photo courtesy of Cindy Ridley
Retha Ridley, 95, of Lemont Furnace, sits at her campsite at Outflow Campground in Confluence this summer.
Photo courtesy of Cindy Ridley
Retha Ridley, 95, of Lemont Furnace, still goes camping multiple times each year, proving that camping is not just for the young.
Retha Ridley turned 95 years old on July 21, but the Lemont Furnace resident still maintains an active and adventurous lifestyle.
Ridley has been an avid camper since the 1940s, when she would go camping with her Girl Scout troop at Camp Riamo near Farmington. She gained a love for camping that stayed with her throughout the years. Despite her age, Ridley continues to camp, with seven camping trips planned just this year.
While her three children were growing up, Ridley would camp with them in the backyard. Sometimes the children would sleep in a makeshift tent, fashioned with a blanket and a card table. When they ventured further than their backyard to camp, they traveled to Shawnee State Park, where they would have fun wandering the woods.
Ridley’s daughter, Cindy Ridley, said her mother would dress her and her brother in white sweatshirts while they played in the woods, so she could always see them. Her father would use a whistle to call them back to their site.
Once the children were adults, Cindy Ridley said she and her mother started camping with a tent and a cot at Shawnee and other campgrounds. They have camped in various locations such as Stonewall Resort State Park, Niagara Falls, Bar Harbor, the Outer Banks of North Carolina and Algonquin, Canada.
Retha Ridley’s favorite thing to do around the campfire is sing songs, her daughter said.
“We will sing hymns, we will sing ’50s, we will sing anything, and she remembers them,” Cindy Ridley said. “Depending on who’s sitting around with us, we’ll be belting them out at the top of our lungs.”
One favorite camping venture of Retha Ridley’s is when they were canoeing down the Potomac River with her church group, singing “Deo” in the echoing valleys. Retha Ridley was still recovering from a major surgery and was carrying a net bag on her canoe with dietary supplements for her meals, but even her surgery didn’t stop her from going on her adventures.
When tent camping became more difficult for her mother, Cindy Ridley said they got a camper, and then an RV. Instead of stopping, they modified their methods so they could still participate in the activity they love so much.
“She hasn’t slowed down,” Cindy Ridley said. “As long as she can keep going, she says, ‘you plan them, and I’ll go with you.'”
The location they camp at most often is Outflow Campground in Confluence. They camp there around three out of the four or five times they typically camp each year.
The pandemic didn’t slow them down, as the two continued to camp, social distanced from others, during 2020.
Retha Ridley now uses an electric scooter that she is permitted to use on bike trails and has used it to travel to the Turkeyfoot Overlook Lookout at Outflow and the dam at Shawnee.
Cindy Ridley hopes her mother’s story will encourage others to continue the activities they love, no matter what their age.
“Don’t be afraid to just step out there and do something you’ve never done before, because you might like it, and if there is something you do like, don’t stop just because of your age. Modify it,” she said. “Do what you can do and go out and enjoy yourself.”