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Three Peaks Earth Station | I have a thing for exploring str… | Flickr

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I have a thing for exploring strange and interesting places, particularly ones within driving distance. Whether it's an old barn, an abandoned school, or a forgotten hotel, I'm there… And if I can convince my wife that it's not too dangerous, I bring her along as well. There are all sorts of funky, bizarre places to check out in the north bay, and I'm always on the hunt to find new ones to investigate and photograph. So the other night, I was messing around in Google Earth and found <a href="https://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&amp;ll=38.147804,-122.794082&amp;spn=0.003202,0.00596&amp;t=h&amp;z=18" rel="noreferrer nofollow"><b>this</b></a>. What was it? Whatever it was, it looked very interesting and was out in the middle of nowhere. Just this big, weird-looking place hidden in the hills near an isolated reservoir. At first I figured it might be some rich eccentric's isolated estate, but it was shaped too weirdly for that. It had to be something else, like some kind of government facility or a school or something… But why was it so remote, and what was the story behind that satellite dish? Older satellite photos that I found in Google Earth were even more interesting. There used to be some enormous dishes installed on those round buildings, up until just a few years ago. I started digging, but couldn't find much information on the place. With Google's help I eventually got an address, which then turned up some <a href="https://www.showcase.com/property/1425-Marshall-Petaluma-Road/Petaluma/California/5051667" rel="noreferrer nofollow">real estate listings.</a> It turns out that the place is a former domestic satellite tracking facility, built in 1974 by AT&amp;T. It's currently vacant, and a bunch of realtors are trying to lease it out as office space. That's a pretty funny idea once you realize just how remote this place actually is. Considering the near-total lack of public information that exists about this facility, I figured maybe it was used for secret or semi-secret monitoring stuff during the cold war. Even if not, the idea of a such a place hidden way out in the hills is pretty interesting. Once I knew what it was, I had to get out there and see it. Some investigative research and help from the kind folks at the Marin County Water District revealed that you can hike around Soulajule reservoir, since it's public land. The only catch is that the one road in and out of there is gated – and only open during daylight hours. It's an automated gate, since there's no staff out there at the dam… And it locks automatically at sunset. This afternoon, we headed out there. We drove through the gate, down the funky half-paved road, over a wooden bridge, and over the hill past the dam. The road above and alongside the reservoir is practically gone from erosion and potholes, but we pressed on. It was actually quite creepy out there, and as you drive further in you get the sense that you might not make it back. It probably had something to do with that gate at the main road closing behind us. Finally, after a mile or so, we saw it. The place really <i>was</i> as big as I thought it would be, maybe even bigger. Sure enough, it's a huge, weird-looking facility out in the middle of nowhere with (apparently) nobody around. Even weirder was the collection of old Airstream-type trailers inside the security fence. They were old, and nearly identical. I counted eight of them. The security fence and gate were barbed wired, and it was clear that you weren't supposed to try to get in. I didn't see any NO TRESPASSING signs anywhere, so we parked in front of the place and got out. I grabbed the camera and tripod, then climbed up a nearby hillside to take a few shots. We continued around the western side, and I decided to go up the fire road on the big hill behind the place to get a few more shots of the whole facility. Jen waited down below, since she wasn't interested in getting ankle-deep in runoff muck. I shot my last few pictures pretty far up on the hill, and as I finished I saw a pickup come down the road we'd driven in on. I didn't think much of it, mainly since (according to Google) there are a few houses further out. I watched as the truck slowed and parked next to our car. Someone with long hair got out and stood there looking at me. &quot;HELLLLLLOOOOOOWWWWW????&quot; she hollered. I wasn't sure what to respond with, so I just gave a friendly wave back as I continued down the hill. Was she a ranger? Someone who needed help? Did we park in the wrong place? The figure darted toward our car and quickly walked around it, as if looking for something. Uh oh, I thought. Something's not right here. I met back up with Jen at the bottom of the hill, and said, &quot;Hey, I think maybe we're in trouble or something. I'm not sure what's going on, but let's go talk to her and find out.&quot; We walked back down the fire road toward the car, and as I turned the corner I saw the lady leaving in her truck. I waved, thinking maybe she needed to talk to us. She made an aggressive U-turn back toward us, flung open her door, and jumped out. She was <i>PISSED.</i> Red faced and full of rage, she stormed over to us. &quot;Hi! Uh, are we in trouble?&quot; I asked with a smile, in the friendliest way possible. &quot;YES. YOU <b>ARE</b> IN TROUBLE. THIS IS <b>PRIVATE PROPERTY</b>, AND YOU ARE <b>F**KING TRESPASSING!!!</b>&quot; she bellowed back. I could tell that this was not going to go well. &quot;Whoa, sorry – we didn't know! There aren't any signs, and-&quot; &quot;YOU ARE <b>F**KING</b> TRESPASSING ON <b>F**KING</b> PRIVATE LAND. I AM GOING TO CALL THE <b>F**KING POLICE</b>, RIGHT NOW!!!&quot; &quot;Okay, uh… sorry. If you really need to do that, go ahead. We're leaving right now.&quot; &quot;DOESN'T MATTER. I'VE ALREADY GOT YOUR F**KING <b>LICENSE NUMBER</b>, I'M REPORTING YOU ANYWAY!&quot; I couldn't believe how furious this woman was. She was standing there screaming obscenities at us full blast, veins bulging in her neck and face. She looked like her head was going to pop off. She took a few threatening steps forward like a territorial pit bull, and seemed to be getting madder by the second. We were maybe ten feet from her, and I kept trying unsuccessfully to get her to calm down by using a normal tone. &quot;Look, we were just taking some pictures. I saw this place on Google Earth, and -&quot; &quot;YOU ARE ON <b>PRIVATE F**KING LAND!</b> YOU'RE GOING TO FALL DOWN AND GET HIT BY A COW, AND F**KING <b>SUE</b> US.&quot; &quot;What?!? No, I'm not going to do that. Really, we just -&quot; &quot;I AM <b>REPORTING YOU RIGHT NOW</b> TO THE F**KING <b>AUTHORITIES!!!</b>&quot; &quot;Okay.&quot; &quot;WHERE ARE YOU FROM?!?&quot; &quot;Novato.&quot; Then, in what was perhaps the funniest part of all, her rage seemed to have short-circuited something in her head. She just stood there staring at me, bug-eyed and huffing, and finally just yelled <b>&quot;F**K!!!&quot;</b> at the top of her lungs. At that point, I realized that I needed to get us safely into the car before this insane woman bit one of us. She punched a code into the keypad at the facility gate, and drove in after it opened. I'm not sure if she lives there or what, but we didn't hang around long enough to find out. As we drove home, we half-seriously considered the possibility that we might get pulled over or something. Would there be squad cars with flashing lights

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california, radio, weird, satellite, marin, marshall, reservoir, threepeaks, marincounty, petaluma, microwave, facility, airstream, att, tracking, rabies, rabid, aerospace, satellitedish, telemetry, soulajule