Waking up to pink sunshine, dew-damp camping chairs and metal skewers sticky with marshmallow; there was none of that Friday. But it was the day to get in the mood.

Friday was the first day to reserve a spot in one of 12 state parks for this summer. Would-be campers pounced.

In the first hour, the state logged 1,342 reservations and all but 37 of them came online at CampWithMe.com, according to Jim Crocker.

“Opening day has always been the biggest day of the year,” said the Department of Conservation spokesman.

At 2 p.m., the state had 2,020 reservations. The majority were made by in-state residents, 1,189. Almost half of the reservations, 955, were for Sebago Lake State Park, which had the additional requirement of a four-night minimum.

“It comes from people really enjoying camping there and often times have years worth of history of spending their vacations there and we really welcome that,” said Will Harris, director of the Bureau of Parks and Lands.

The ease and speed of the Web were likely drawing people in, he said. Last year on opening day the bureau rolled out a new real-time Web reservation system and ran into glitches that made for a tough morning.

It was “a much better day this year than last,” Harris said.

He’s hoping for more campers overall at state parks this summer.

Some hardy ones weren’t waiting for green grass. Bryan Kalleberg, who’s been the year-round ranger and is now acting manager of Bradbury Mountain State Park in Pownal, was expecting a party today.

“There’s a geocaching group and they’re going to spend the weekend here,” Kalleberg said.

His park had roughly 6,500 campers in 2007, a 23 percent increase over 2006. Word got out about the three brand new showers, he said. There hadn’t been any before.

He was also hoping for as many or more campers this year.

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