The Getaway...Crom's build and adventures

Awesome build page and truck! Makes me wish I had more time to go camping

 

What's really nice about our J-Tree trips is we like to cheat and eat out for a meal. It's a nice break from cooking. We leave the park for this great hole in the wall New York Style Pizza place called "Pie for the People."

When we arrived I saw the toughest looking women saddling up on their Harley bikes as they drove away. The high desert has so many interesting characters.


^Not my photo, just hot linked to a public picture.

The place has some great food and a nice back patio to eat on.

I was so hungry I almost ate my phone instead of the pizza.

So yummy!


Also ate a huge salad.

After that, we motor down the road to "Sam's Market and Liquor" store for some ice cream sandwiches.

Oh my, soooo good!


Here is a pic of my ice cream sandwich and if you notice in this photo my kids standing close by, their feet appear normal.


And then in this photo, it looks like they're fighting. lol

 

In Boulder? Burr Trail Grill or around there?

Did you stop at the Kiva Coffee House on the edge of Escalante? Awesome lunch spot on a shelf above the river.

 

Crom is this in downtown Josh?

 

Yes. I just learned they even have a website: http://pieforthepeople.net/

 

Let's have some history in here. On the tail end of our J-Tree adventure, I took the family to the ruins of Berdoo camp. This is a very interesting historical site. Since our last visit, 5 years, 11 months and 25 days has transpired. Much to my surprise much of it appears the same as it did almost 6 years ago.

Before we look at the pics, lets read a little about the camp.


-Source: Desert Magazine 1966 March, Phyllis Wight

Berdoo Camp was constructed in the 1930’s when the Metropolitan Water District was constructing the aqueduct to carry water from the Colorado River to Los Angeles. Substantial buildings with all possible conveniences were build to accommodate the men who worked the desert project. There were eight other camps were established in the Coachella Valley to facilitate the project–Fargo Canyon, Yellow Canyon, Pushawalla among them but Berdoo Camp was the largest and most costly. The sum of $148,000 was spent to complete it. There were more than 40 buildings plus necessary improvements including roads and fire hydrants on the hill tops.



The buildings in Berdoo Camp were of various types. The layout plans shows different-sized dormitories-one to house 40 men, one for 28, several for 20, a couple for eight, and a number housing only four. Again quoting the Report, the District charged a little more for the privelege of listening to fewer snores as the larger dormitories charged 20 cents per day for lodging and the cottages charged 25 cents and 35 cents! A 9-room guest house was maintained at the camp for use of visiting members of the District organization and guests, with $1 per person per night the rental fee. A larege mess hall served meals to the men with hours according to the shifts being worked. Nine meals a day were not unusual. These meals cost each man $1.15 per day. Each camp also operated a commissary where toilet articles, tobacco and cigarettes and so forth could be purchased at small cost.



The division Headquarters Office was in a large building near the northern boundary of the camp at the edge of the ravine. The superintendent’s residence was above and to the right of the office, and ther were other buildings used aan auto repair shop, car shed, tool shed, machine shop and a general utility buildings.





One of the largest buildings, at the upper end of the camp near the “U” turn, was a 27-bed hospital. While other camps had emergency first-aid stations, the hospital was located at Berdoo Camp where accident (and other) cases were brought by ambulance. T. Sheridan Carey, M.D. of Los Angeles was surgeon-medical officer for this class A industrial hospital, with one assistant surgeon and 14 registered male nurses as staff. The air-conditioned hospital wsa equpped with a modern operating room, X-ray plant, diet kitchen, general offices and other modern facilities. Each employee was charged 5 cents per working day for medical service. It was decided, as the Coachella tunnels neared completion, to expand the medical facilities at Banning. Accordingly, the Berdoo hospital was closed in October 1936 and all equipment moved there.

-Source: Desert Magazine 1966 March, Phyllis Wight

 

To access the ruins of Berdoo Camp you need 4WD. I locked up the rear, just to give ATRAC a rest. It's not a technical climb, but the incline is steep and the ruts are very large and traction is an issue. I was not even sure if trail was accessible after 6 years of weather. The road was washed out years ago and there was a bypass. Fourtuanly the bypass still exists!

Here is a pic of the washed out road. The bypass is to the left (not pictured). This served as an opportunity to explain weathering and erosion to the kids.


This was a pic my wife took. I cropped it, and turned it into a pencil sketch for artistic fun.


Now parked at the lower section of the ruins. This art was here 6 years ago and it's very much still intact. I was very pleased to see this.



Someone also spent some time making the place a bit safer. All the rebar from the concrete foundations were bent over. Odd still, the place had hundreds of rusty nails on the concrete.


Also one of the concrete foundations to the west had a nice commanding view of the desert below. The place was built on a hill so, looking south the views are quite good! Lot of target shooting occurs in this area. Lower still, there is a canyon. I pointed out two car hulks down there used for target practice. It was somewhere around this time, my wife looks at me and says with much sarcasm, "You always take me to the nicest places on my Birthday!" It was her Birthday after all, so I made my usual promises.


The camp extends much further to the North, where there are many more structures which are really cool! But we were pressed for time to get home, so I didn't get to revisit that area. In retrospect, it's crazy how small decisions like that result in large time gaps between visits. But that's life!

 

Makes me hungry!

 

Kiva is a very slow, chilled-out place, but, um, why else are you in the middle of gorgeos nowhere? Food and drink were great.

Hm, must have blinked, or was too busy gawking. We came into Torrey at night from the moutains to the south, so saw nothing on our way to our special motel night (yay one shower whole trip). The next morning as we headed toward the park, at sunrise, I think we were mostly slack-jawed and gawking when we rounded the bend after the gas station at the junction (where I was accosted by my second Dutchman inquiring about my teardrop within 24 hours; this one had already built his own back in Holland).

We had departed Bryce that morning, went all the way out to the Burr Trail switchbacks, wheeled over and hiked up to the lookout, back to Boulder for burgers and beer, then blasted over the steep windy dark mountain highway to Torrey for the night, narrowly missing several massive and pure black cows at the edge of the road. Weirdest thing. There were just these black-hole like voids in space that puzzled me. The I saw tiny shiny things. Then I realized those were eyes attched to a massive flat-black heifer 1 foot off the shoulder, and I was about 10 feet from it. Much shit was shat. Their hides were basically flat black, the road was very curvy, so my headlights didn't really light them up well even on high beam until the angle was right.

God that trip was a blast.

 

Rarrrrrr! I found a dinosaur in Cabazon, CA.













This is a neat pit stop for travelers on I-10. Really fun for kids and nice park area to get out, walk the dog, and stretch the legs, etc. A couple restaurants are in the parking lot so easy access to food for travelers.

World's Biggest Dinosaurs Gift Store
50800 Seminole Dr, Cabazon, CA 92230, United States.

Here endith my trip report for J-Tree 2015

 

I can't wait to get out that way. Once my kids are older, were going back to UT, and never been to CO. So many great pics from CO.

 

I remember the first time I saw that when I was a kid. I thought it was the coolest thing! When I was a kid, we often spent our summers Going to Mexico. From SoCal, take the 10 out to Arizona, then through the Sonoran desert and south all the way to Guadalajara. My dad used to drive us everywhere in his Mazda B2000 (pickup that in later models became a rebadged Ranger) and I think I got the wayfarer bug from him. Of course this was back when we could ride in the back of an open pickup bed without restraints. Still not sure if it was entirely legal even back then though, but that's pops. Dude doesn't GAF. I will say this: you've never really seen the stars until you've spent a three hour drive through the desert at night while laying in the back of a truck. Feels like you're a thousand miles from anything you can almost reach out and touch them. I miss those trips.

Like always: thanks for the pictures and the reports man.

 

Me too! Here is a short funny story from the other day while talking to my wife.

Me: Honey, let's go to Anza-Borrego for the month of November.
Her:That would be nice, but I want to back to J-Tree.
Me: Hmmm... J-tree is 4 hours away and we were just there. Anza-Borrego is a short 1.5 hours away and it's been a while. What gives?
Her: I want to back to the pizza place!



Well it turns out there is yet another great pizza place in Temecula, CA. And we ate there on the way to J-Tree.

The Temecula Pizza factory. They have a tiger shrimp pizza that is to die for. They serve it with jalapeno dipping sauce. I confess I eat too much because it's sooooo good. Whatever is left is put in foil and into the ARB fridge for later. Amazing!

 

Awesome story man. Thanks for taking the time. Love, love, love the night sky while in the desert. I too rode many times in the back of trucks as a kid, it was a lot of fun too.

 

Right now, I'm living my outdoor adventures through your pictures. My wife's work/school schedule has her locked up pretty tight and she has limited time to get away. Nothing like my Gov't job! Haha! BTW, if anyone remembers the scene from PeeWee's Big Adventure with the dinosaur gift store- that brings back memories too...

 

Stop it already. It's almost lunch time.

 

Sounds like it's time for a solo trip! You might have to ask Crom for some tips on convincing your wife to let you go though. I can't help you there. I'm not married but I nearly ended up single on the last trip I took without the GF. Goodluck!

 

We have a lot of similarities in our lives. Oh man, I too remember Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) with the dinosaur. I didn't realize until I read your comment and searched and found this video, that it was actually filmed there. Wow! From the video filmed in 1985 till now, there has been a shit load of commercial real estate development in that area.

Glad to share the pics. I completely understand the time crunch constraints.

This. I have a lot of solo trips under my belt because I would schedule trips well in advance and let her know. If she could go, she would, if not she wouldn't. It's that simple. But after having kids all that changed. Everything has to be coordinated and agreed upon.

There is a tremendous amount of satisfaction I receive on my solo trips. Hard to describe with words, but whether by foot or by vehicle, It's really something special. At least once a year I like to do a multi-day trip alone.

Oh and this because wife was mentioned:

 

Also, got my hands on these today. I can almost smell my truck frame burning. By this time next week they'll be on!

 

Cool ideas, your truck is looking good! Sub'd to read at a later date.