This was actually my first trip out to Red Cliff, an old abandoned radar station which was part of the Pinetree Line, a series of stations spanning across the US and Canada.  The Line was meant to be a defense against Soviet Bomber attacks on North America……………Turns out it wasn’t such a good investment, as radar technology became obsolete VERY quickly. Why I chose THIS morning to go there, with winds at about 60km/hour and the temperature down around -12, I’ll never figure out, but at least I got there before I broke my knee.

Now all that remains (at the Red Cliff site at least) are old concrete shells of buildings, falling apart, but finding new life as a very popular Paintball field.

This is the entrance to the Aircraft Control centre……..reminded me of  “roundhouse” from call of Duty.   I guess this once had two levels, as there are stairs that lead up to what is now the roof.  Being up on top of a hill, there is an amazing view from up there, but I was worried about getting blown off and down into the ocean….so I stayed on the ground floor.

To get here you have to drive out through Marine Drive in Logy Bay, until you get to Red Cliff road, then just keep on that until you get to the gate……..yes, unfortunately it’s gated and you have to walk to the site.  However, as I discovered on Google Earth, there is a shortcut you can take.  When you start off walking on the dirt road, watch for a fairly newly cut pole line on your right side, which goes up quite a steep hill.  You can cut through that pole line and it will take you right in to where the structures start.

This is the first “structure” you encounter……..although there is nothing left but part of a wall, which now is just a series of archways.  I took a few shots, but the brigtness and angle of the sun really limited composition options…………….so I tried some IR.

Despite the wind, I managed to shelter the camera and tripod enough to get a decently sharp shot.

There are a few other smaller structures hidden in through the trees beyond this one, but I didn’t explore any of those.  I focused my attention on probably the largest of all the buildings.  It seemed to be in quite the awkward position…….right down over the bank from the road.  This place was probably the creepiest, not because it was dark or anything, but because the building is falling down around you.  In one corner the 15ft roof has collapsed nearly to the floor, and every now and then a piece falls from the wall or ceiling.

See that slant in the top right corner?  Yeah, the architect didn’t design that.

I was actually crouched over there shooting from a different angle, totally forgot about the roof and cracked my head pretty hard when I stood up.  I didn’t really think about it until afterward, but if I would have hit it hard enough to knock myself out…….it would have been bad news.

What really struck me about this building was the wooden window frames/shutters that were still intact in some of the windows.

Up at the very top of the hill there are a couple more buildings, but the wind was just too much and the cold was insane.  By the time I was finished with the roundhouse I decided to head home.

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