Well, I did most everything wrong.  I didn't want to be up there on a rainy day, so I left Portland late, stopped for ginger chicken at a Chinese restaurant in Bangor, then browsed in a bookstore, hoping to find something new to bring along in case the weather didn't improve.  Not that I didn't have enough books, whose bulk and weight added to the trouble I was headed into.

Still raining, and winds had blown down trees along the unpaved access road, when I reached Baxter Park in the late afternoon.  I didn't have proper rain gear and packed poorly, carrying a backpack, a large, heavy-enough canvas tote bag and not-exactly-light shoulder bag (for the books).  Hand-carrying a tote up to the Chimney Pond campsite in a storm— It was just foolish.

     "Just make a run to the grocery store?" one hiker, just coming down and passing me at the head of the trail said, with a certain dry humor.