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jinx13
  
location:
Peninsula, San Francisco Bay Area
Gender: Male
 |  | Byron Hotel
< on 9/29/2010 5:50 PM >
|  | | | Sup guys.
Last week I went out to the Byron Hot Springs and walked around for a while.
It was a pretty awesome trip. I got there around 11 AM and spent about three hours there. It was a pretty big area and I explored some of the surrounding buildings.
On the way in I passed by a few cows who were less than thrilled with me.
There were a couple of empty sheds that had seen better days
Despite that some of the interiors still had a good amount of paint not-peeling and made for some nice pictures.
Lying around were quite a few waste heaps and just general rural flotsam that had somehow made their way in.
 
Of course I eventually went inside.
The whole place was covered in shitty tags and high school levels of graffiti. Maybe I was just spoiled because I had just come from the warehouses in Richmond that were just incredible.
I'm guessing that the place is sometimes used as a haunted house what with the plastic skeleton bits that were lying around and the research I did afterwards saying as much.
There are three floors of stuff to look at. Most if it is pretty not bad. The main stairway is covered in sand for some reason so it made getting up a little tricky but totally doable. There's a burned out kitchen on the second floor that's interesting to look at.
There were a couple things that were slightly unnerving while I was there.
First is the airport that's a couple of land plots over. It freaked me out the first time I heard the planes going over but I'm guessing that since they're taking off they're more worried about watching their instruments than what someone's doing in an abandoned hotel.
Second is what looked to be well settled squatters.
Neighboring the hotel were two sizable trailers, one big rig cab, a few trucks, one abandoned BMW, a few potted vegetable plants, two chickens, a make shift chicken coop, some kind of water silo, and a go kart. I would have taken more pictures of the settlement than I did except that rag I snapped above was wet and I sprinted out of the area.
I was wondering if any of you have been out there and encountered the squatters there or have any idea what's going on. I'd sort of like to go again at some later date but I want to be sure it's safe. The shotguns shells lying around creeped me out.
All pictures in higher res in my photobukit.
http://s932.photob...ADVENTURE%20Byron/
[last edit 9/29/2010 5:52 PM by jinx13 - edited 1 times]
Gravity, it's not just a good idea, it's the law. |
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Toilet Pigs
location:
south bay, california
Gender: Male
| | Re: Byron Hotel
<Reply # 1 on 9/29/2010 7:41 PM >
| | | | rad photos.
i've been wanting to check this place out but last time i heard they had an active security guard.
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edsel
  
location:
Under your skin
| | Re: Byron Hotel
<Reply # 2 on 9/29/2010 7:56 PM >
| | | | Nice write up, good thing you didn't get shot by the farmer with his shotgun!
www.flickr.com/edsel12 |
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jinx13
location:
Peninsula, San Francisco Bay Area
Gender: Male
| | Re: Byron Hotel
<Reply # 3 on 9/29/2010 10:45 PM >
| | | | Posted by Wrecked
rad photos.
i've been wanting to check this place out but last time i heard they had an active security guard.
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They might have one but I didn't see any when I was there. Not even a hint of one. I was a little worried about the trailers but when I took a peek inside one of them there was a drum kit so I'm guessing it's probably not anything super professional going on there.
The only contact with people was a plane that circled around a couple times but nothing came of it.
Posted by edsel
Nice write up, good thing you didn't get shot by the farmer with his shotgun!
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Yeah, that would have been a real downer.
[last edit 9/29/2010 10:50 PM by jinx13 - edited 1 times]
Gravity, it's not just a good idea, it's the law. |
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jinx13
location:
Peninsula, San Francisco Bay Area
Gender: Male
| | Re: Byron Hotel
<Reply # 4 on 9/29/2010 10:49 PM >
| | | |
Nearly forgot to mention, when I saw this I had to stop for about five minutes to just laugh at it.
I know it was put there to probably freak out some high schoolers, but they spelled paranoia with two 'e's instead of two 'a's and for some reason I couldn't help myself.
Gravity, it's not just a good idea, it's the law. |
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angekla
location:
Boston
Gender: Female
| | Re: Byron Hotel
<Reply # 5 on 9/30/2010 5:06 AM >
| | | | the "perenoia" is great. where exactly is byron hot springs located?
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Cowboy
location:
Nashville, TN
Gender: Male
| |  | Re: Byron Hotel
<Reply # 6 on 9/30/2010 5:10 AM >
| | | | Posted by angekla
the "perenoia" is great. where exactly is byron hot springs located?
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Places and things and such.
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jinx13
location:
Peninsula, San Francisco Bay Area
Gender: Male
| | Re: Byron Hotel
<Reply # 7 on 9/30/2010 5:27 AM >
| | | | Posted by angekla
the "perenoia" is great. where exactly is byron hot springs located?
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It's in the middle of nowhere. Well not really nowhere. But really too far out of the way to be worth going unless you're willing to commit a good part of the day not being near a city.
It's in Contra Costa which is almost entirely farm country. The Hot Springs itself is on an off-road of an off-road.
Gravity, it's not just a good idea, it's the law. |
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Calvin Kaneda
 
location:
West Coast Ninja/East Coast Pirate.
Gender: Male
| | Re: Byron Hotel
<Reply # 8 on 9/30/2010 6:02 AM >
| | | | The plane you saw belonged to the skydiving school next door. Sometimes while you're out there shooting they end up landing right in front of the hotel. If you have skydivers landing in your area, expect a car (black SUVs) to come and pick them up. These people have keys to the front gate and permission to drive onto the property.
Watch out for snakes.
This is also a local teenage hangout,so pick your infiltration time when kids should be in school. There used to be a caretaker out there, but not for a long time as far as I know.
"By the prick of my thumb something wicked this way comes..."
"Under the cover of night, I travel across rooftops while you dream of adventure."
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Toilet Pigs
location:
south bay, california
Gender: Male
| | Re: Byron Hotel
<Reply # 9 on 9/30/2010 7:40 AM >
| | | | Posted by Calvin KanedaThis is also a local teenage hangout,so pick your infiltration time when kids should be in school. There used to be a caretaker out there, but not for a long time as far as I know.
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i've also heard there was a caretaker out there. [ one of the reasons why i haven't visited yet ]
good to know and hopefully that is true.
also read on a different board that the guy in the trailer is a nice dude [ supposedly ].
might visit this place in the next coming weeks to take photos if anyone wants to meet up.
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jinx13
location:
Peninsula, San Francisco Bay Area
Gender: Male
| | Re: Byron Hotel
<Reply # 10 on 9/30/2010 8:43 PM >
| | | | Something that I've done on other posts and plan to continue to do heretofore is post a "Lessons Learned" bit. I think it's important not just for me to go back and think about what to improve but maybe for other people to maybe gain a little foresight.
So a belated Lessons Learned:
1) Bring a tripod that's reasonably portable. I had one but left it in the car because it was a bit big and little unwieldy for the hike I had to make from the entrance to the actual site. I've since bought a much more compact tripod.
2) Print out an areal map if your location is isolated or reasonably dispersed. Wandering can be fun, but not when you have walk a ways away from any meaningful sign of a road. When I bolted I was more scared of getting lost than getting caught.
3) Be mentally prepared for shocks. When I saw that wet towel I went weak in the knees. It's not a good feeling.
4) If I ever do a place of that size, that degree of isolation again, and that much open space I would go with someone. There is a lot of flat land and an extra set of eyes would really help in checking what's coming ahead. I don't exactly know why but being out in the open was more unnerving than being inside one of the buildings.
edit: typos
[last edit 9/30/2010 8:44 PM by jinx13 - edited 1 times]
Gravity, it's not just a good idea, it's the law. |
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Vectored Approach
location:
Morgan Hill, CA
Gender: Male
| | Re: Byron Hotel
<Reply # 11 on 10/1/2010 10:57 PM >
| | | | ... and by all means, keep an eye open for rattlesnakes.
Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy. -George Carlin (1937 - 2008) |
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nachtman
Gender: Male
| | Re: Byron Hotel
<Reply # 12 on 10/9/2010 12:16 AM >
| | | | There was a caretaker on site as recently as this summer, which was new. I'm surprised and encouraged that you didn't encounter anyone.
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Nicloe
Gender: Female
| | Re: Byron Hotel
<Reply # 14 on 10/12/2010 9:33 AM >
| | | | There seems to be confusion about the caretaker. He’s been there for the past 5 months and he isn’t afraid of trespassers. He lives in the trailer right next to the building and I’m surprised that no one else ran into him when they went recently.
The landowner is planning on demolishing the hotel and wants to build a replica of the 2nd hotel that this one was built on top of. He continually gets voted down by one member on city council who wants them to renovate the 3rd hotel.
As it is, this building is getting worse every day. Tags cover the all the walls, just about every tree, and even the stairs. The kitchen was being used as a meth lab that blew up, causing the room to explode from the inside. Everywhere, the floors are literally covered in the plaster and debris knocked off the walls and ceilings.
I went last Tuesday with aklover and a friend.
We arrived around 12am to avoid any trouble with teenagers and parked across the street. I suggest avoiding Mondays and Tuesdays as the café is closed and we were watched by someone in a truck when we parked.
We got to the shot up barn in front of the hotel when we saw a truck starting and hid until it passed. There’s a bunch of rigs around the hotel and I was starting to think that we were too late.
As we were looking around the 2nd floor we heard someone cursing loudly outside. We hid behind the pillars and thought we heard him go in the trailer. After 5 minutes or so, we heard him entering the building yelling on his phone about how he was going to get someone. We hitched it to the 3rd floor when we heard him coming up the stairs and ended up crouching behind the guard walls in the center room. I was sure we were caught and I kept hearing a clinking noise and thinking it was the shotgun. He got within a foot of us several times. I was starting to get nervous but followed aklover who took the lead. He didn’t hear us crouch-running to the staircase when he went into the rooms because he was still swearing over the phone. We were looking for a way out through the burned out kitchen and just missed the staircase when we heard him coming towards us. He was following our exact route. I crouched behind a pile of bricks and debris and my friends hid behind the corner. Then he saw us. Turns out he wasn’t the caretaker after all, and had just heard about the place yesterday. The clinking was from two cans he was hitting together. He had no idea that we were narrowly avoiding him for the last 45 minutes. We ended up checking out the rest of the building together.
It was lucky that he found us because he had talked to the caretaker so he already knew that he was in the house and didn‘t get angry when he saw us but told us to leave. We ended up talking to him for half an hour about the history of the building first.
The caretaker seemed like a very calm guy but I definitely would not want to be on his bad side. He told us a few horror stories about the teenagers that come. He gets threatened a lot but it apparently doesn’t phase him. I would not be too surprised if he pulled his shotgun on us if we came at night or with spray paint so watch yourself if you go and don‘t act suspicious.
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"the Body is under the floor"
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Main staircase from 2nd floor
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I think this used to be the dining room
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This looked like a some sort of cart pushed down the stairs
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View of the burned out kitchen from the 2nd story
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This was in a somewhat hidden area around the kitchen with tons of real animal bones piled up
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What used to be the safe? The locking system was partially there still
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Marble staircase to the 3rd floor
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The caretaker said a girl fell down the elevator shaft and broke a few bones
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3rd floor, main room. We hid behind the short wall with 'Ching Bling'
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Front of the hotel. The old foundation from the 2nd hotel is still visible
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One end of the 4th floor to the next
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He flipped off one too many people. Hardy har har
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There were more around front
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666 Massacre Doorway
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I was hiding on the ground behind that pile in the burned out kitchen when he found us
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1st floor under the kitchen. It's actually quite impressive
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"YOU SHOOD BE IN BED"
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THE SHAFT
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Elevator machine
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The last standing door frame
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Kitchen's in back. The caretaker told us most to all of this graffiti came out of just the last 5 years
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Supposedly there's a picture of the hotel owners in front of this spring some decades ago
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Toilet Pigs
location:
south bay, california
Gender: Male
| | Re: Byron Hotel
<Reply # 15 on 10/14/2010 6:34 AM >
| | | | i went here today [ also visited the "slaughter house" and "gang house" in antioch ]. it was eff'ing hot out [ over 90 ]  but it was a complete success.
while walking up to the building, we saw someone who i assumed was the caretaker. there's no way he could have not seen us, but he ended up walking in the opposite direction and up the hill to the vineyards. so we ninja'd our way in and took our time taking photos. we were never spotted while inside. spent over a hour inside, exited from the main stairs with no problems.
no photos from me at this time, i shot on film and have to develop the rolls and make prints.
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jinx13
location:
Peninsula, San Francisco Bay Area
Gender: Male
| | Re: Byron Hotel
<Reply # 16 on 10/14/2010 7:10 AM >
| | | | Holy shit, I must have dodged every god damned bullet when I went there. No caretaker, no snakes, no nothing. Just me, a "haunted" hotel, and a few chickens.
Gravity, it's not just a good idea, it's the law. |
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ChronDoja999
location:
San Diego, California
Gender: Male
| | Re: Byron Hotel
<Reply # 17 on 10/15/2010 2:17 PM >
| | | | Very cool pictures and an interesting story to boot. Thanks for this thread 
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xmas_one
location:
Long Beach, CA
Gender: Male
| | Re: Byron Hotel
<Reply # 18 on 10/18/2010 4:37 AM >
| | | | cool pix, thanks!
people who know the least tend to know it the loudest |
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IDChris
location:
Southern Idaho Wasteland
Gender: Male
| | Re: Byron Hotel
<Reply # 19 on 10/18/2010 4:35 PM >
| | | | Pretty cool! I found it interesting someone strung up orange safety fencing.
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