Philip and Byron sat and talked as the moonless night darkened. Thomas slept on glacier smooth rock. Mice ran over them. Thomas spoke to the rodents in his sleep. Arthur watched tiny points of starlight twinkling on water.
A pot of water for coffee boiled on the morning fire.
They ate breakfast, made plans, filtered water, broke camp, and packed the canoe.
The men paddled west and then north to the trail head.
Occasionally the lake where they left the canoe and camping gear appeared between trees until they reached an altitude and angle where it could no longer be seen under the forest canopy. They carried easels, panels, paints, cameras, water, and a lunch.
They scrambled over the old glacier smoothed and weather worn rock faces of frozen white
quartzite
magma. The heat of the sun magnified, reflected, glittered off glacial stone.