The forest kept changing character before it ever opened into rock - deadfall and burned trunks first, then talus, then granite boulders, then the lake itself under a wall of snow-streaked peaks. Four of us made the two days in, packs heavy the whole way, hanging a bear bag from a dead lakeside snag each night. A ground squirrel scavenged the camp for scraps in daylight; whatever visited after dark is why the bag went up.
