This IFC sits on top of Hawk Hill in the Marin Headlands of San Francisco. An Integrated Fire Control site such at this provided the radar target acquisition necessary to support a separate Nike Missile launch facility in use during the Cold War.
In this case, the launch facility, known as SF-87L, is now being used as a nearby Marine Mammal Center and the missile batteries are now being used as storage.
This particular location should have been easy enough to get to. But, some assholes decided that they needed to do a little road construction prior to my arrival.
I only had about an hour before my date with Alcatraz and needed to make it quick. I couldn't just sit around killing time in a place such as this, I had no other choice but to attempt.
With the road blocked off, my only route was straight up the side of the mountain. I tried following the path for a bit, but it was designed to wrap around the long way, so I left it pretty quick to set forth on my own, straight through the unidentified shrubbery. The vegetation was thick but fairly pleasant compared to the thorny shit I'm used to trekking through in Missouri. Little did I know, it was a devil in disguise...
Once at the summit, I had about 10 minutes to explore and photograph the site. It wasn't very large, but still very cool nonetheless. I was rewarded for my effort. But by this time, I was running late. I could see my car way off in the distance and the shortest trip would be a straight line, right through the thickest of the plant growth. But, hey, it wasn't so bad.
It was so thick, I could hardly step forward down the steep incline without tripping up and tumbling around. So then I had the brilliant idea to just go with it! So there I am, all alone, about two thousand miles from home doing somersaults down the side of this mountain, bouncing on the soft almost luxurious shrubbery until reaching the bottom in like a minute flat. Gotta admit, it was kind of fun and I made up for lost time.
The next day, I was covered from head to toe in the worst rash I've ever had. It was like poison ivy, but a thousand times worse. My eye was swollen shut. My left arm eventually swelled up to about double its size. My junk was painfully itchy. I tried toughing it out with some useless crap I found at a pharmacy. It didn't really help.
I drove the 5 hours back to crazydrummerdude's place and stayed the night there. I uploaded all my shots of San Francisco in a hurry that night, covered in this rash, tired and itchy. We had an 1,800 mile/26 hour drive ahead of us back to Saint Louis. Through the desert. With no AC.
The Mojave Desert is a hot motherfucker. You think it's bad on any given day? Try it covered in poison ivy. It was possibly the worst experience of my life. We stopped at a gas station in BFE, hot ass desert fucking middle of nowhere. I wondered if my insides were swelling too.. There's no hospitals around... The high desert was nice, compared to the low desert. You could feel it like a wall of fire as you drove through. FUCK...
Finally we got out of the desert and into more hospitable climes. I think it was Nebraska by the time I started losing feeling in my arm. Once I lost feeling to my fingers for good, I decided to seek an emergency room. Crazydrummerdude pulled up the nearest place with the help of his GPS, which turned out to be a tiny little out of date looking shop. They loaded me up on steroids and shots and eventually the swelling went down and I transformed back to normal from my mutant self.
I'll try to find a pic of my arm later and post it here, unless CDD has one handy.
Looking back, I wouldn't change a thing.
I will also be adding this to my website soon. It will be located at http://www.sublunar.info/sf87c.html
This is why I couldn't drive up.
