Waters’ Silent Flight: A Sawtooth Lake Solve

In August 2025, I ventured west with my truck loaded down with enough provisions to last around four weeks. I am no stranger to long road trips into the wilderness. Most years, I spend more than 100 days hunting, scouting, and wandering public lands.

There is something different about being alone out there, isolated with only yourself and whatever you remembered to pack. At first, the silence feels empty. Then, slowly, it starts filling in. You begin to understand the noises around you. You notice the smells. You hear the small shifts in the woods before you ever see what caused them.

That kind of awareness feels like something modern life has slowly trained out of us. Somewhere between air conditioning, cell service, and grocery pickup, we forgot how much the world is saying when we are quiet enough to listen.

That is when the wilderness stops being scenery.

That is when you become part of it.

So, let’s get into the solve I originally set out to share, which is probably why you are reading this in the first place.

I debated for a while whether I should share anything specific about a solve. I am still relatively new to the treasure hunting community, so I have been erring on the side of caution. When is it time to call a solve and move on? When do you keep it tucked away?

Until now, I had chosen to stow this one away like an extra screw in the junk drawer, just in case I ever figured out where it came from, or whether it belonged somewhere else entirely.

For this solve, I now feel comfortable sharing.

The Solve

This solve revolves around Sawtooth Lake, Clark Creek, and the Sawtooth Trail near Polaris, Montana.

I first looked into this location because it was one of many places mentioned in the book. Starting simple, I marked every location I could find in the book on my OnX Maps mobile app. As I went through those locations one by one, this place and its story kept sticking out.

It felt like Justin was giving the reader a guide to seeing Montana properly. He even hints at that feeling in the “Trailside Troubles” chapter.

The story explains that he was excited to share Montana with others. He mentioned what to bring, what not to bring, when to hike, what to look for, and where to go. The whole chapter gave me a serious parable vibe. It reads like an outdoor lesson dressed up as a bad decision, which, to be fair, is often how the best wilderness stories begin.

Story Summary

To recap the chapter, Justin takes the lead in showing the group where they can experience a sunrise and do some fishing. He talks them into hiking the Sawtooth Trail at night so they can camp near Sawtooth Lake, wake up early, watch the sunrise, and fish.

He knows better, of course. That is part of what makes the story interesting. He knowingly ignores his experience and the usual rules of the wild, then decides to hike the trail at night anyway.

As they hike up the trail, Justin asks the group whether they want to see a hidden lake. The group declines, but Justin sets off through the woods toward the hidden lake on his own. That is where he encounters a female bear and her cubs.

He runs back to the group yelling that there is a bear, and the group takes off running up the trail. Eventually, Justin takes a spill, collects his thoughts, and evaluates the situation. He looks for footprints from both his group and the bear. After realizing the bear did not follow them up the trail, he regroups with the others, and they decide to camp for the night.

Justin recalls that the group was not prepared and that the night was bitterly cold. So cold, in fact, that the next morning a can of soup was still a block of ice even after being held over the fire. That is the kind of detail that makes a man question his choices, his friends, and possibly canned soup as a category.

The next morning, they realize they had camped only a hundred feet or so from the base of Sawtooth Lake. They decide to start fishing, only to find themselves in the middle of a forest fire response. Firefighters are nearby, and a helicopter is flying overhead carrying a Bambi Bucket.

They are escorted down the mountain and learn that a nearby fire had jumped the ridge and burned up the very trail they had used to hike in.

In other words, they were in the shit.

They eventually make it back to the base, where law enforcement is waiting and they have to explain themselves. They are greeted by an officer whom someone in the group knew from another state, and the story ends there.

Initial Thoughts

• The intention behind the night hike was to reach the top of the trail, see the sunrise, and fish.
• Justin was excited because it was the first time he was able to use the cabin instead of a tent.
• The illustration of the Bambi Bucket could connect to the idea of waters’ silent flight.
• Sawtooth Lake appears to be the fishing hole they were heading toward.
• Around the backside of the lake, there are camping locations and small brooks.
• The lake is surrounded by cliff faces, and a tangled wreck of an aircraft is located nearby.
• While remote, the location is just outside a one-mile radius of property Justin owns. That puts it well within RF range, but outside reliable cellular service.
• There is one main way in and out.
• A car can access the trailhead.
• On the backside of the mountain, near Comet Mountain, Justin shows an image of people looking into a small cave. That image appears only in the printed book and is missing from the e-book.

These initial thoughts were enough for me to start overlaying the poem against the terrain and the story to see whether anything was there. To be transparent, I am going to share my notes on the poem and this location. You can take from them what you want.

Poem Notes

“Can you find what lives in time,
Flowing through each measured Rhyme?”

This could suggest a memory, event, or location that aligns with the poem. I read this as an invitation to look for something that exists both in the story and on the land.

“Wisdom waits in shadowed sight,
For those who read these words just right.”

Wisdom, Montana sits on the other side of the mountain range to the west and is hidden from view from this area. Wisdom is also physically in the shadow of the mountains as the sun rises over the Sawtooth Trail. That may be coincidence.

“As hope surges, clear and bright,
Walk near waters’ silent flight.”

As the sun rises on a clear day, this could point toward walking near Sawtooth Lake. The illustration of the helicopter and Bambi Bucket may also connect to “waters’ silent flight.” Sawtooth Lake is fed by small brooks from snowmelt, which enter on the backside, or eastern side, of the lake.

“Round the bend, past the Hole,
I wait for you to cast your pole.”

This may point to walking around Sawtooth Lake toward the camping areas, where someone could pitch a tent and fish. “The Hole” could refer to the fishing hole itself, the lake, or a more specific terrain feature nearby.

“In ursa east his realm awaits,
His Bride stands guard at ancient gates.”

Looking east on the map brings the Beaverhead National Forest into focus. Grandpa Fitzwater was, in a sense, married to his work, which could make the State of Montana his “Bride.” Looking at the property maps near the trailhead, a person must pass through land owned by the State of Montana before entering National Forest land.

Oddly enough, the shape of the Montana-owned property before the National Forest resembles a gate. I do not know whether that matters, but it was strange enough to earn a place in my notes.

“Her foot of three at twenty degree,
Return her face to find the place.”

The term “foot” can describe the base or bottom of a mountain or other terrain feature. The story involves three individuals at the foot of the lake, camping overnight in temperatures well below freezing (twenty degrees), as suggested by the frozen soup can the next morning.

“Return her face” could be interpreted as going back to the base of the trail, or down in elevation. It may suggest returning down the mountain, or returning to where they camped overnight, roughly 100 feet from the base of the lake.

“Double arcs on granite bold,
Where secrets of the past still hold.”

This feels like an instruction to start looking on the way back. It may describe the possible location where they camped, or it may simply be setting up the next clue by telling you what kind of feature to watch for.

At this point, I would be looking for something visual, something on stone, or something that immediately stands out once you are in the right area.

About half a mile up the trail from the trailhead, there is a large boulder with two markings that almost resembles an eye. Coincidence is always welcome in the mountains, but this one at least earned a second look.

The boulder also happens to sit adjacent to the upper boundary of the hidden lake, on a plateau above it.

I stopped there for a while to take in the view and study the surrounding area. From that location, looking toward the south side of the ravine, I noticed another boulder with a large “X” carved into it. An eye looking almost directly at another boulder with a giant X. This seems like a Spanish gold hunt!

The area is not too difficult to reach. It takes about ten minutes of hiking over rocky terrain around the backside of the hidden lake. It is not exactly a sidewalk, but it is not the kind of place where you immediately start questioning your life insurance policy either.

The boulder sits on a relatively flat area of about 20×20 above the hidden lake mentioned in the book. The image above was taken as I was approaching the boulder.

“Beyond the reach of time’s swift race,
Wonder guards this sacred place.”

This could suggest a location protected from erosion, water flow, or the normal wear of time. It may also imply that the search area is not far, but it does require wandering a little within a general zone.

One possibility is crossing over the creek flowing out of Sawtooth Lake and moving into an area that is slightly removed from the obvious path.

“Truth rests not in clever minds,
Not in tangled, twisted finds.”

This line feels like a warning not to overcomplicate the solve. You should know it when you see it. Do not get distracted by something overly elaborate, and do not chase every tangled possibility just because it looks mysterious.

Technically, this may also be a warning to stay away from the plane wreckage nearby. It is tangled. It is twisted. It is interesting. And it may be completely unrelated.

Naturally, that makes it even more tempting.

“Like a river’s steady flow,
What you seek, you already know.”

This line feels like a reminder to trust the obvious. Rivers flow downhill. Trails lead somewhere. Water shapes the land. The things we already know are often the things we stop seeing.

To me, this says to approach the area like a kid exploring the outdoors. Open your eyes. Take everything in. Notice the small stuff. Do not assume the answer has to be complicated just because the hunt feels like it is.

That is where I left this solve for a while.

Not abandoned. Not solved beyond question. Just tucked away in the junk drawer with the extra screw, waiting for the day I either needed it or finally admitted I had no idea what it belonged to.