Hughsville Ghost Town....Stuck

We'd been planning a drive over to Hughsville, which was an old mining town. Hughsville was developed during the late 1800's, dying off and coming back to life during WW2. Shortly there after the area shut down. There are still some residents there today.


The hay crop this year is huge. The Little Belt Mountains in the back ground.


Square Butte to the north.

An old homestead

A big rattlesnake...someone finished him off with a 9mm and removed his rattles.

This place was large in its' time.

The "road" towards Hughsville from the North is signed as "unimproved'. This turned out to be an understatement. Climbing higher and higher the road became very narrow and boulder strewn. Some spots in the trees were so narrow I had to pull in the truck mirrors. The road started to switch back up and eventually was about 8' wide and was only a notch cut in the mountainside. Darian, riding as a passenger was on the outside edge. The right tires had only a few inches to the edge. The last steep section was loose rock and about a 1000' drop into the canyon. My adrenalin was going for a while.

Finally made it to the top and commented that I would not want to be here in the rain.

Over the top of the mountain and we headed down. approaching a washout I mis-judged my route and we slid into a very big hole, high centering the truck.

The weight of the truck was on the running board and the frame. Not going anywhere....
Luckily I had purchased some chains and two come-a-longs yesterday for work. I shoveled around under the running board and then the rain came...

It poured rain for nearly an hour with sleet and a lot of lightning. The lightning was very close so we sat in the truck hoping the storm would pass. Came to the conclusion that we might be spending the night in the truck.

An hour later the storm subsided and I started rigging chains up to the closest tree...about 75' away. Using the two come-a -longs we drug the truck back 10 - 12 feet, at 1/2" at a time. Took both of us to pull the winch handle with the white behemouth on the other end....

The right rear tire was nearly off the ground.

Luckily that tree was right where it needed to be....and I had enough chain.

Took us about 1 1/2 hours to drag the truck out of the hole...then we had to carefully plan on how to get around it...no way were we going back the way we came in after the pouring rain. Road down the mountain would have been too dangerous.

Finally figured a way around the 'Pit' and gassed it through...the aftermath below....

A mile or so down the mountain we entered Hughsville...

A lot of structures ready to fall in on themselves...

Quite the operation here...ore was hauled by a small gauge railway over to Monarch MT.

Collapsed building atop a tailing's pile.

A number of old cabins about.

Remaining foundations

An old steam boiler

We finally made it to the highway...took us three hours to travel 30 miles....below is a view of the "Sluice Box" area....made it home safe and sound!

I won't be going back over that mountain again anytime soon.

Airheads Beemer Club "Tech Day in Paradise"

I finished up work duties by 2:30 pm on Friday so we headed out on the bike towards Paradise MT. and a scheduled "Airhead Beemers Club Tech Day". We hoped to at least get part way there before dark. We made it to Missoula Mt. at about 7:00 pm and decided to stay at a cheap motel, rather than camp. (starting to be a trend?) I was given possession of the Montana State Airhead Flag at the Beartooth Beemer Rally last weekend and decided to deliver it personally to the Mt. Air Marshall, John Werre.





At the tech day...with the MT. Airheads Flag in its' rightful place.

The ride to Missoula was very windy and a struggle at some points. When the wind hits from the left, along with a sloping road it takes a certain amount of effort to keep the rig going in a straight course.
Below: A plains view before the mountains....west of Simms MT.

We made a quick pit stop in Lincoln for fuel. Ran the rig with the smaller touring tank this trip so gas stops were no more than 100 miles apart.

Some great river road riding between Lincoln and Missoula

Pulling into Missoula....the driver with a stupid look on his face.

Navigator self portrait

Leaving Missoula Saturday morning we headed north towards Kalispell, then west towards Paradise.

This is an animal overpass to keep the critters off the road.

Traveling along the Flathead River

We arrived at the "Tech Day" location at about 11:00am. Quite a few attendees. Numerous small repair / maintenance projects were in progress. Below is MT. Air Marshal John Werre's BMW and Jupiter sidecar. John's rig is pretty much original condition. My old rig has had the frame modified and was missing original lighting, badges and wind screen hardware.

Our rig in the background. Don't often see Jupiter sidecars...much less two in one place....Johns' is the first one I've ever seen , other than mine...

A lot of observers during repair sessions

I had a couple of "Airheads" Stickers with me so offered one to Terry from Washington. He was riding a very nice Plum colored BMW GS.

The weather forecast was for rain on Sat. night and Sunday so we planned on heading towards home Saturday. Upon starting my bike preparing to depart some serious back firing issues were apparant. I decided to take a few minutes and perform a quick valve adjustment...elapsed time about 15 minutes plus or minus...

Airhead Phil and Air Marshall John cheered me on...

We see Airhead Phil at the Last Chance Rendevous each year. He winters in Quartsite form Idaho each winter.

The sidecar makes right side engine work a bit more of a challange.

We pulled out at 2:30 pm and were in the rain immediately...didn't last long.

Just outside Bonner MT. sign read ; "watch for Big Horn Sheep"...sure enough there were three watching for us....the third one was closer and out of the photo.

The BMW still didn't run as it should coming home.

I pulled apart the Bing 40mm carbs today, disassembled and replaced all gaskets, o-rings, etc. Found each carb had a bad choke housing gasket. It has been a miserably cold starting bike....this repair should definately help. I had two over haul kits and never got around to rebuilding the carbs. One of the old rubber carb diaphrams was thin and like a "blob'...I am surprised it hadn't failed.

The engine has a couple of oil leaks so will probably attend to them. Also want to revisit the ignition system and look for problems there. I should install the original air filter system also. The original intake pulls air through the top of the engine...that additional air draw might help cool the engine more.(?) To install the original intake system I need to restore the crankcase vent plumbing to original form. The previous owner had replumbed the system and vented it to the atmosphere, rather than into the intake system.

The right side valves have required more adjustments than normal. The heads were re-done in Texas so I hope they didn't screw something up.

So maybe I'll bite the bullet and remove the sidecar to perform all these adjustments.

BELOW: A short video along the Flathead River...

"New" BMW Lester Aluminum Wheels

Before and After...I used the Heinrich tank last weekend for my statewide road trip. The Cop tank now on the R100.

Received the "new" Lester Wheels I ordered late yesterday so the late afternoon / evening was spent swapping tires and wheels around. I had a new sidecar tire so decided it was time to renew that also. The old one might have made another 500 miles but no sense in risking it. The rear tire I mounted was a used 120/90 that I had from my spare Lester Wheel. I still have a near new 18" for the tug when needed.
Tire changing is not one of my favorite tasks but all went well with no pinched tubes, at least I don't have any flat tires this morning.

Pretty easy installation. Removed the discs, etc. from my old wire rims and everything bolted right over.

Used a wheel bearing greasing tool to regrease all the bearings. The wheels were in very nice condition with minimal scrapes and scratches from tire changes. Seller said they came from a 10k mile bike and had been in storage.
I also changed out the R100S engine oil pan for a MAC 2 quart pan. This brings total oil capacity to just under 4 quarts. Good thing I pulled the oil pickup sump as the mounting bolts were nearly loose...likely would have fell out in a short period of time. I used some "Blue Locktite" on all the bolts this time.

Beartooth Beemers Rally

Had to attend a meeting at Fort Harrison on Friday morning so decided to ride the solo R75 over to Helena. From there I headed to Red Lodge MT. and this years Beartooth Beemers Rally. My wife and I attended this rally the first two years but haven't made it back. I think this was the 12th or 13th year. I ran the Interstate over to Columbus MT. and then took a short cut over to Joliet Mt. Had a couple of miles of one lane dirt road from construction. It was dry and dusty....that road section would have been a nightmare in the rain.
I arrived at 6:00 PM just in time for Dinner. My yellow tent in the background.


"Dr. Bob" trailered his nice old 1971 R75/5. His father bought the bike new and Bob rode pillion when he was young.

Bob from "Bobs' Motorwerks" in Red....talking with Rex, "The BMW Dog"...Bob and his wife Anne are the Rally organizers,

A friend in Billings just picked this side hack rig up over in Ca. It is an "EML" and is a total EML setup including the main frame...based on an R80 so might be a tad underpowered.(?) Sure is pretty....

Camp site was at the Lions Club Camp....great kitchen , showers, location, etc. The food was plentiful and very good! As was the beer.

I awoke Sat. AM and had a good breakfast. Packed up some essentials and headed over the Beartooth Pass to Cooke City Mt....our old stomping grounds...

The Mt. Airhead Flag was hung...I brought the flag home with me as we plan on attending the Airhead "Tech Day" in Paradise Mt. this weekend.

Glacier Lake, barely seen from the Beartooth Summit....we used to winter camp up at the lake.

The "Bears Tooth"

Pilot and Index Peaks. Cooke City sits on the opposite side of these two peaks.

This home was built by our family in the late 70's and was our summer / winter hideout for 25 years. Now in the possession of a new owner...

Downtown Cooke City

Old hotel on main street.

Rode over to Silver Gate Mt. (entrance to Yellowstone park) then back tracked towards Red Lodge. Decided to take the Sunlight Basin road for a change of scenery.

A few Sunlight Basin photos...

Switchbacks up "Dead Indian Hill"

Vista Point near the summit.

Once I made it down the mountain I was greeted by much higher temperatures...felt like 100 but I was told it was only 92...This fire was near Columbus MT. and ended up burning 10000 acres.

Australia...a few miles from home...

Saturday evening was beautiful...another great meal and I was awarded for "The Oldest Bike Ridden to the Rally". I hit the hay by 9:00 pm and was up early on Sunday AM....had to get to Billings to see family, and then back to the Great Falls area...

I liked this old R65....it had a lot of character!

I dodged some huge thunderstorms heading home...only got a few drops on me while my wife, who was a few minutes behind me in her car, got nailed by some big down pours...guess I was living right!

I received my "new" pair of Lester Wheels so worked this evening installing them. Had to swap out tires, then also installed the over sized "MAC" oil pan. I'll put up some photos later....

BMW "Lester" Wheels / Upgraded oil pan

I've come to the conclusion that Alloy wheels need to be a priority for the Mongrel...my current front spoked rim had a couple of bent spokes, which I straightened and then tightened all the spokes. I realized during the last trip that the wheel is not completely true.

Pulling corners at speed puts a huge lateral force on the wheels.

I recently purchased this rear "Lester" wheel via EBay a while back...it arrived with a nice tire mounted but the wheel spacers/collars were missing. The bearings look real good but the spacers need to be set up properly to account for bearing preload, etc. Proper set up is crucial for these wheels and set up improperly the bearings can fail, from either excess preload or insufficient preload...I do not feel confident to tackle this myself so this wheel assembly will be set aside for now...


I saw this pair on EBay but didn't really want white wheels on the bike...plus they were priced pretty high...



So I finally settled on this pair...also on EBay...bought them today so I'll get them in a week or so and get them mounted. I called the bike shop selling them and was assured that they are complete. true, and damage free....

During the last road trip I experience slightly high oil temps in a couple of situations. I can't mount a conventional oil cooler as the sidecar lower subframe interferes with any cooler plumbing at the oil filter location....looked for a "Brielle" (?) oil cooler which is a pan extension with cooling tubes running through it. Had no luck finding that particular part. Ended up going with an aftermarket MAC pan which is what I mounted on the /5 engine. This will raise the oil capacity to 4 quarts and allow more cooling surface area / volume. This technique worked to cool down the /5 so hopefully this method will suffice for the R100S engine.

Hang on..... Video Clips, BMW / Sidecar in Glacier National Park