If you live in Montana, there is a myriad of wildlife viewing and scenic backpacking opportunities. Thunderbolt cache , is in the heart of Flathead National Forest between the Swan Mountains and the Bob Marshall Wilderness area. It is a harsh climate with many downed dead trees due to winterkill. The rugged country is also Grizzly Bear territory, and Geocacher MedicOne, was lucky enough to sight one on his backpack trip.

brbrowne set the Thunderbolt cache while trying to reach the top of Thunderbolt Mt. in July, 2001. Browne, age 65 at the time, didn't make it to the top that year, as that requires negotiating a steep slide area before reaching the site of the Forest service lookout and a spectacular view. As a result he set the cache in its present location so as not to put anybody in danger so far from help. Like others before him, Browne saw numerous elk, mountain goats, and other small wildlife.

rockhopjohn, was first to find at the cache on his second attempt, although Rye_and_Leigh also made a backpacking trip.

Rockhopjohn and his friend, Nick, left the parking area at Napa Point about 8 AM, and luckily it was an overcast cool day, about 60 degrees, perfect backpacking weather. Here is his description of the trip: “We made pretty good time on the trail, we were able to cover 10 miles or so to our camp in about 6 hours, and there is some pretty good climb on the trail, so we thought we did pretty well. We ran into the USFS trail crew that was working on a section of the Alpine Trail near Thunderbolt Mountain and talked to them for a while. We found out that they were camped in the campsite that Bill had posted on the website. It was still early, so we decided to head down to Crevice Lake, which was about another 2-3 miles from the posted campsite. We brought out fishing gear along hoping that the lakes at this elevation were deep enough to support fish, but when we got to Crevice Lake we found no sign of life, but we did find a great campsite. So we set up camp here, and decided to just relax, and rest that evening, and get up and do the cache in the morning.”

“We got slept in a bit on day two, because we weren't on a very tight time frame. We ended up hitting the trial around 10 AM. We spotted the side trail to the cache area on the way in, so we knew about where we had to go, and had no problems finding the trail on Day 2. We made it to the cache location about 12 noon, and had no problems find the cache. It was still in good shape, and was well protected by a massive boulder. I don't trade very much when I find Geocaches, and I see so many that get plundered, so decided to just leave a package of Moleskin, which I figured could be something very useful to find on a hike like that. I also left a Travel Bug of Bill's that I had picked up when I was the FTF his Broken Leg cache that is about 15 miles north on the Swan Range.”

“After we found the cache and signed the log, Nick and I decided to try to climb to the top of Thunderbolt and see what the view was like from there. We are a little bit crazy, so we decided not to worry about finding the old lookout trail that went to the top, and we figured we could bushwhack it. We climbed up a relatively steep slope up to the top of the divide between the basin the cache is in, and the North Fork of Lost Creek Drainage. Once we got to that point, we decided it was little too risky to climb to the top from where we were at, so we decided to amuse ourselves by rolling rocks down the mountain. So we rolled a few down into the North Fork of Lost Creek drainage. Then we climbed up higher on a rock outcrop, and rolled rocks down into the basin the cache was in. This kept us amused for a couple of hours, until we finally ran out of big rocks to roll down the hill, and decided to head back to camp. Just a note about the rock rolling, I know that sounds like an unsafe thing to do, being that you don't really know what is below you and all, but in this case, this area is so remote, and we knew the trails, and the area we were in well enough, that we knew there was no possibility of dropping a rock on someone's head. We spent the rest of that afternoon and evening messing around in the general vicinity of camp. The next morning we packed up, and hotfooted it out of the woods with visions of ribeye steaks and baked potatoes dancing in our heads. We made the trip from our camp, to the truck in exactly 5 hours.”

“The trip was a lot of fun for me, for a number of reasons. It was great to say that I was the first to find a cache that went unfound for over two years before and that I was able to be the FTF. It was also great because it was my first multi-day pack trip, and I got to spend it with a good friend. Both of these reasons are why I love geocaching. I have been to many places that I would never have seen otherwise, and I have been able to meet many good people with whom I wouldn't have ever been introduced.”

Rockhopjohn cites Thunderbolt as his favorite cache. Rye_and_Leigh also claimed that this was the most beautiful cache they had done, and vowed to return later to once again experience this stunning hike. Skydiver proclaimed, “Fantastic views all along the way,” and MedicOne ranks it as his #1 favorite with spectacular scenery. With such rave reviews, this is the Today’s Cacher pick for backpacking in Montana.