My Lucas Day
January 17, 2004
It was a beautiful Saturday morning and, for a change, I had
the whole day to myself and decided to have a little "Lucas" adventure.
I took the longer, but more sceneic route to Marin - up highway 280 and through
San Francisco via 19th Avenue
to the Golden Gate Bridge.
As a resident I pretty much NEVER go over the bridge so that was really fun to do since it had been years.
Once you cross the bridge you're in Marin, so I kept driving until I saw the
mightly sign - Lucas Valley! Yeehaa!
Funny side note - the road isn't named after him. I did some research before
I went up and found out that
useless tidbit of info. I had always assumed it was.
Lucas Valley Road is a winding SOB and narrow. The cars are all upper scale
and they drive like idiots. I got one picture
of the road but no more since I was trying to drive while not getting hit by
said crazy motorists or hit one of the many bicyclists.
I had managed to find the address to the entrance gate of the almighty Ranch
(google searches are amazing tools)
and found it to be completely unassuming.
I pulled in and was talking to my co-hort in crime who was parked
off the road about 50 yards past the gate. While I'm parked
a plain white van comes through, punches in a gate code (oh how I wanted that
code) and in he goes so I pull up and park.
I get my dog out of the car to stretch her legs. I had taken her with me because
I had read about a
hiking trail called 'Big Rock' that was nicknamed 'the skywalker easment' and
figured we'd have a look.
I no sooner get her out that a red pickup/fire dept truck pulls in behind us.
I'm sure the van guy alerted him to some whacko sitting
at the gate. I take Shasta and walk over to the truck - it's always better to
beat them to the punch. I explain that I'm a little lost (HAH!)
and that my friend had told me about a trail called 'Big Rock' that would be
fun to walk my dog on but I can't seem to find it.
This is, of course, a big a** lie because you can't miss Big Rock, it's huge
and practically ON the road, but it's too late, I've already
said it.
I don't know why but the guys whole demeanor changed and he was VERY nice. I'm
sure he must have known I was feeding him
a line of bull, but maybe he figured out I was completely harmless (HAH!). You
have NO idea how difficult it was for me
NOT to scream. I'm standing there talking to him and his shirt has 'Skywalker
Fire Dept' on the sleeve.
His truck has the Skywalker Fire Dept logo on it and the geek
in me is DYING. I want to scream "take me to Hayden
I promise I'm not psycho" but it dawns on me that could possibly be a lie.
:-)
Anyway, the guy was wonderful. "You should have passed a set of gates that
look just like these, only with security cameras," he says.
"Oh yeah, I think I saw those gates," I lamely respond....yet another
dumb blonde moment - it was that damn logo, it had
me all flustered.
"Well," he says, "Big Rock is just past those gates. It's big
and full of graffitti."
"Oh," I say, trying to cover my dumb blonde moment from earlier, "I
did see that but didn't see a place to park or a trail."
I also made some comment in here about how sad that there is graffitti on a
nature trail and he agreed but
I couldn't tell you exactly WHAT I said - I was again, trying NOT to openly
stare at his sleeve.
"Well," he continues, "there is a fire easement where you can
park, just off the road like you are now and the trail is
across the road." He's smiling at me and being very pleasant and I'm eternally
grateful I hadn't worn anything Star Wars
based. :-) I can't think why, other than the idea that I was talking to someone
from Skywalker Ranch, I can't stop talking
to this guy - I ask him where I should turn around, comment on how crazy the
drivers on this road are (he laughed and
agreed). Finally I thank him very much and Shasta and I walk back to the car
and he leaves....in true Lucas Valley
Maniac Driver Fashion - he drives BACKWARDS up the road, with traffic coming
up on him he swerves into the
other lane and is now facing oncoming traffic!!! Thankfully there wasn't anyone
coming and he whips into the driveway,
turns and leaves.
I take a moment to look through the heavy cover of trees and see two houses.
A little more research
suggests these are the Caretakers residence and The Inn - a large house with
1 bedroom
apartments for visiting guests. The picture I took of them didn't turn out -
too many trees.
I loaded up Shasta and headed back to the easement. Debi left, so it was just
Shasta and I.
We stop at the gate the fire guy told me about, which is much more cleaner more
business like looking entrance.
I snap a picture before parking and preparing for the walk down Skywalker Easement...
So I'm still giddy over the Skywalker Fire Dept thing and actually
STANDING in Georges driveway. The whole
time I was driving down Lucas Valley Road I kept thinking that Hayden had traveled
this same road - no wonder he
threw up (LOL...I know, it was on the plane, but that road is really winding).
I park where the fire guy told me to park and took life into my own hands as
we crossed the road to the big rock
and found the trail. I'm disappointed to find that partway down the trail, it
turns and actually leads you away from the object of
my obsessions - what ever is behind the gates I just stood in front of. So,
being me and thankfully having worn my
hiking boots, Shasta and I head up the hill, off the set trail and opt to follow
a deer trail instead. I used to do it all the
time on my horse... side note - it's much nicer when you're RIDING and the horse
is HIKING.
The hill is intense - steep and muddy with growth up to my waist and I'm 5'8".
Shasta leads until the deer trail
got to be sort of spotty and then I take the lead to push the growth out of
her way. I keep looking back for people to
stop me, but I'm not on GLs property (following his fence), but part of the
Nature preserve, and I figure if anyone says anything
they're (A) going to have to follow me up that INSANE mountain and (B) deal
with my excuse of just wanting a picture of the valley.
The view is amazing and the growth thankfully shorter when we finally reach
the top and get to peek down into the world behind the gates
You can see the Security booth on the left, thats inside the gates and you can't
see it from the road. I had NO idea what set of
buildings that was until I got home - but what you see is the offices of Lucasfilm
LTD.
To the right of the buildings you see a road leading into the mountains - I
believe thats the road that leads to the main house,
only because to the right of it (not visable in the picture) there were grazing
Llamas. :-)
I just stand there for the longest time and ponder the idea that Hayden could
be just down that road... had he walked through the
doors of that building? Had he skipped rocks in that lake? I take some pictures
of the valley to the right of that building and
somewhere behind that mountain is the main house.
This picture is of the area to the left and it shows how high we hiked. If you
follow the main road in
from the left of the picture (thats the lower of the two visable roads) and
then follow straight up from
the tip of Shastas left ear, where the two intersect is my Suburban. :-)
I figure this is a great photo op for Shasta, so I take a few pictures of her.
I also zoomed in for a shot of the many roads although I don't
know why - it just looks like they come from everywhere. There is the
one that goes straight to the security booth, but another one to the booths
left, another to the left of the lake and that winding one on the right.
One more of the view opposing the Ranch
and one more of Shasta which is easily one of the best pictures
I've ever taken of her, before heading back down the
hill and back to the car.
The tales of the day end at ILM, which is a fairly short drive
from the Ranch (15-20min). Again, kudos to the web for providing the address
because you could drive past this building all day and never really see it.
One building is completely unmarked
while the other (not pictured) still says "Kierner Optical".
If I had to guess, I would think that the large part of the
building with the dishes on the top was where we saw Hayden and Nick working
out on Thursdays webcam.
I park across the street and waited for the security guy to leave before snapping
a picture of the gate.
Inside the gates there is something that looks like an artifical tree that catches my attention, although I still don't know why.
I drive down a little further to take a gander at the far end of the building
and start to really get excited...
... not because of the building itself, but of the buildings behind it.
The portable buildings look familiar to me but I'm not sure
until I zoom in a little closer. In between the main building and that
first portable are doors I do recognize from one of the documentaries on the
Ep1 DVD called "Making Episode 1".
There is a scene some ways into
it where you see John Knoll walking from the Kierner Optical building to toward
those portable... sigh.
Activity is minimal, but it's a saturday afternoon so I'm not that surprised.
As I drive around the building, ignoring the many signs
that say it's private property and trespassers WILL be prosecuted to the full
extent of the law... I find a back entrance with more cars,
still unmarked, and sharing a parking lot with a Circuit City ...but the signs
are VERY different between the store and the unmarked
buildings. Circuit Citys are just your standard "customer parking only"
variety while the others are clearly intended to scare off the
weak of heart.
Through the back gate...
you can see the building that is visable the street ...
and also a larger building behind it that isn't visable...
I left to go driving around to find a starbucks that George has been seen in
(which I really needed by then) and couldn't find it.
Navigating around that area is a pain, the ILM buildings are on a one way street
that comprises a 'loop' so you could just drive
in circles I guess, but the surrounding neighborhood didn't appear that great
and since nothing seemed to be happening, I
headed on home, ending my Lucas Day, not having found Hayden, but still feeling
great about paying homage to the great
Lucas Institution..
Hope you all enjoyed coming along, even if it was done virtually ;-)
