Hicks Road part 3

Some of the poster on unresolved-mysteries.com have mentioned United technologies corporation as some how tied to the Hick Road weirdness.  This is really a completely separate area and has nothing to do with Hicks but I figured I would post something with a few of the sights along Metcalf, San Felipe and Los Animas roads.

First you are going to need to find a way to get there, the route i took was Monterey Highway to Metcalf Road.  Driving up its pretty windy for a bit so you should be warned.  The first location of any interest is the Metcalf road motocross tack.  I guess they now do some sort of midget car racing there too.  This place is connected with the county and you will see Rangers there during business hours.  I am not a motor bike rider but i guess it would be fun if you are.

 Here is a picture with a bit of information on the park if you are interested.  There was a steady stream of trucks carting motorcycles down the road as I went up so I guess its pretty popular.  It looked fun if that is your thing. I am a pretty big wuss so not me.  Also owning one on those bikes looks like a hobby all to itself.  They have carts full of supplies just to gas up and ride.  I will stick with D&D i think.

It is pretty country through out the area.  You have some really nice views of the Lick Observatory. This pictures looks closer than it is thanks to zoom.  You are going to take Mount Hamilton road off of Alum Rock if you are going to head up there.  From time to time they have concerts and observatory nights where you can look through the refractory scope.  I am pretty sure you don't get to look through the reflector without an astrophysics degree. grazing. 

And there are some nice cows out there.  you can see them taking a little path by the rod in this picture.  I guess this time of year many local farmers are renting out their land for grazing.  Just look around they were in all the little stands of trees hiding out from the sun, even though it was pretty mild out.  The car said it was 68 but it was blustery.

Finally you get to United Technologies though I guess they have been bought out. by some new owner.  I was a little taken aback by what I saw as it looked like they had abandoned the place.  The sing outside looks pretty weather worn with liken growing on it.  Though it looked like a new sign.   Its odd as they did test rockets out there at one point.  I remember them doing a test when I lived in Evergreen with my parents.  It seem like an earthquake with the noise and shaking but there was an ever growing  trail of smoke in the sky that told you it was something different.

The odd part is the flags they had up were new and certainly not in bad condition.  That is a little odd as you can see they have torn down some of the buildings that were once out there.  There is also very new cyclone fencing up everywhere.  Some of the road are falling into disrepair but main roads remain in decent shape.

There is also a guard shake out there that seems to be vacant except for fly strips.  Sorry that is weird do you have a dead raccoon carcass in there?  My friend and I were stupid and young and loved driving these roads when we were just out of high school.  I have driven them more times than I can count.  On one of the weirder drives we save armed guards at this gate.  I have not idea what that was all about, but being a pussy it scared the hell out of me.   Its odd to see everything so desolate after an event like that.  I know time has a way of changing things but its odd to see a big research facility leveled when it could be left to rot. 

In all the pictures you will see an area that once had buildings but now is being irrigated over.  Well except for the bit of paved section in the one picture blow.  I don't get this.   I know there is a lot more to the UTC property it goes back some ways.  You can see the roads on any sort of mapping software or google.  I really just find it weird to see a large two story building and parking lots vanish.  If you look below you will even see a deer prowling in the area.  It has been completely over taken by the animals.

As I have said before how does this all relate to Satan worship and albino's?  Well it doesn't!  Not at all or in any way this area was fun to grow up in and we had a phantom truck that would chase you down San Felipe but we know nothing of albinos.  There were some regular murders in and around the creeks out by Aborn and White thought.  I think it ended up being a Vietnamese guy who killed his girlfriend, so again no albino's involved.

Our thing was driving out to the end of San Felipe with Rush booming into the wilderness night.  There is a one lane bridge that ends in a farm out there, we tried to time it to Red Barchetta playing on the radio, so we went over the bridge just at that part.  As you can seem my friend and I were lame.  This is now a private road and Rush not particularly popular so the teens of Evergreen will need to find a different pastime.  Sad really that is a far better record than your favorite band.

If you continue down Metcalf you will connect to San Felipe.  This leads back to Evergreen to the left and further into the hills to the right.  If you continue further you will come to the fork of Los Animas and San Felipe.  As I mentioned above this end is closed off as a private road.   Taking Los Animas you will reach gate 6 if the UTC complex. 



You will see in these pictures some of the warning signs they have posted.  Its pretty overwhelming for a country road.  Also given the closure of the buildings in the main area why have all this stuff?

Looking here you see they are currently working on this entrance.  Again with bulldozing a building and letting the rest of the place fall to shit why are they working on this.  This is a long drive on difficult roads at best.  This just seems a bit odd to me.

Taking the road at the bottom of Metcalf you will reach the county shooting range.  Its sort of nice that there is a county park like this in the south bay.  I guess you can go and do all the shooting you want.  It is pretty close to a sheriff's training facility and a rehabilitation facility.

Driving in the area you can see a few of our local residents the turkeys.  They are all over here in south San Jose. I snapped a few shots of the other parts of the area too.  Here is the stocked lake we have for fishing and the power plant we have for electricity.  Sort of an odd mix of views sublime and tainted. 

Well if you are looking for my other Hicks posts here are a couple of links.  First is one with loads of pictures. Next i have the first posting I did with primarily information as I have heard it on Hicks.

A new Post about Sveadal and Croy road can be found here.