I recently packed up my laptop and headed to work from a cottage in Maine for a few days. Tropical storm Henri made the going slow, but a little more than six hours after leaving home I was hunkered down in Wiscasset watching the rain pour down. Promoted as the prettiest town in Maine, Wiscasset is a picturesque base from which to explore the central part of the state. Towns like Boothbay Harbor, Rockport, and Damariscotta are close by for those craving stores and restaurants. Wiscasset itself is packed with antique stores, many of which seem to open very irregularly and unpredictably. It has a handful of good eating places, including Red’s Eats, the lobster roll shack that has been feeding locals and visitors alike for decades. If long lines and high prices don’t bother you, Red’s is the place for you.

Of course, Maine’s glory is its open spaces. The gorgeous beaches, woods, and lakes attract a lot of visitors in the summer, but I found it easy to escape into places of solitude. Once Storm Henri had passed over, we had days of unbroken warm sunshine, perfect conditions for exploring the wild places of Maine. When I wasn’t working or exploring the neighborhood, I was reading Robert Macfarlane’s The Wild Places. Macfarlane could find plenty of wilderness in Maine, enough to satisfy even the most solitary of hermits. But it would be foolish to be complacent about that state’s wild wonders. The Wilderness Society does a great job raising awareness of the dangers.