This was our third trip to Camp Hero. In the previous two trips, we had avoided driving directly onto the base, as there are signs everywhere saying the area is closed to the public, no trespassing of any kind etc... So usually what we have done is parked my car at the Montauk Point lighthouse and travelled along the beach and crept into the base through the back entrance. However, this time I was feeling a bit bolder, I assume that the worst penalty that could be imposed for trespassing would be a fine. So we drove right through the front gates, and continued down the road to the vicinity of the radar dish tower. There are many rumors on the internet that the radar tower is still in use, as the radar itself is seen to have changed position over time. Although it was too foggy this day to photograph the radar from where I photographed it last year, (as you can see in the above photo), it was apparent to me that it had moved approximately 45 degrees toward the east from last year. (That would be it turned 45 degrees to the left if viewed from above). While I am inclined to believe that this is caused by the wind, I cannot say so with certainty. As I am no mechanical engineer, I do not know if the 50 year old antenna is structurally sound enough to be left in a non-locked position, to offer less resistance to the wind. As I have said, one of the biggest rumors floating around is that the antenna is still in use, for nefarious purposes of manipulating time and space. So naturally this is the area we headed for first, I felt it would be easy enough to dispell these rumors or add validity to them with a quick check of the tower itself. Unfortunately, this was not to be as the entire area housing the radar and several buildings is barb wire fenced in, with new gates that are locked.
As I know the difference between walking through an open gate and climbing a locked one is the difference between trespassing (a misdemeanor offense) and breaking and entering (a felony) we elected not to climb the fence, as much as we wanted to. Besides the general vicinity where we parked seemed to be interesting enough. I should note though, that the area is in a wide open clearing, unlike most of the base which is overgrown, and within several minutes of doing a quick recon of the area, we were stopped several times by park employees, who for lack of a better description seem to spend their day driving in circles through the base. The first time we were stopped by two men in a truck, they just commented that there were state police who regularly patrol the base. The second time another group of men stopped and said we had no business there and that we should leave. A third vehicle came a few minutes later and the driver very adamantly advised us that he would call the police if we did not leave the premises immediately, which we did. However, at that point we went and parked back at the lighthouse and entered the base by walking along the bluffs and entering once again through the "back door".
