Missing Montana

I had planned on making opening day on the Henry’s Fork on June 15, the start of my summer in the Yellowstone periphery. Technically, that would be missing Idaho, but I generally think of my trips to the mountains as “Moving to Montana“. And it is only 30 miles to the border at Targhee Pass.

Instead of boondocking by a river and tying flies for the green drake hatch, I’m turning wrenches on BMWs at Teran Motorsports in Willows, CA, where it is forecast to be over 100 degrees every day for the next week. Ugh, some small consolation is that the opener on the Railroad Ranch was spoiled by a windstorm that drove just about everyone off the water.

I’ve completed one of the M12 motors that I had left unfinished in May for some work in Costa Mesa. A second M12 has all of the parts ready to go together, barring any surprises. There is a Jaguar E-type motor that can get some attention, and a third M12 turbo that needs to get the bottom end started. After missing my June 15 target, I revised it to the 4th of July, when the salmon fly hatch typically peaks on the Madison above Lyon bridge. But that ship has sailed now too. Mid July then. I can’t complain .

One complete M12 and one bare block ready for assembly.
Carrillo rods on a Marine crankshaft
The intake cam’s lift at overlap is almost two hundred thou!
The bottom of a BMW M12 showing the dry sump scavenge pipes and oil pump.

I’ve yet to formulate an actual plan, but I hope to spend some time on less populated rivers this time, and I’d like to be on Flat Creek in Jackson Hole for its opening day on August 1. Maybe hit the Gardner river in Yellowstone to see what it looks like after the massive flooding they had in ’22. Will my favorite honey hole still be there, or will the boulder have been shoved aside?

I’ve recently turned over 105,000 miles in the ol’ motorhome, and hopefully the money I’ve sunk into it recently will keep me rolling along for at least one more trip to Yellowstone. All new steering links last September, new ball joints and camber adjustment this year, a new radiator and hoses. And I just replaced all six tires, for the third time (2015, 2019, 2024), plus I got a tire pressure monitoring system. It already saved me once, when I picked up a slow leak in Southern California, on the most heavily loaded rear tire!

In the Fall, I’m going to get more serious about finding something newer. If you’re in the market for a well cared for, high mileage class C toy-hauler, shoot me a note.

Here’s some of the scenery I’m missing, in Jackson Hole and Hebgen Lake…