GOLD! and new beach

[johnj45586]

I had to get my car out of the neighborhood by 7 AM this morning to avoid being trapped by the pavers.

I managed to get up early enough to make it to Laguna Beach by a little after 6 am. I hunted there until 8 am when the free parking goes away. I had seen a crowd at the beach yesterday and had high hopes. Apparently they lost very little at the beach. There had also been an art sale over the weekend, but that was held in an area tiled over and no chance for lost change.

I went on to Aliso Beach, another beach I had seen a crowd. I picked up a few quarters and other change, but not much. However I did make an interesting find. I believe it is a meteor fragment. It was really tough to get off the rare earth magnet. It was in wet sand and had been there a while - but there was no corrosion or contamination of the sand. It has the surface appearance of an iron meteorite I purchased at Meteor Crater in Arizona, many years ago. So I am adding it to my collection as meteorite!

I headed south and looked for another beach site. When I passed the Ritz Carlton I remembered that I could see the water from the Coast Highway and there was a sign that said, "Salt Creek Beach Park". But I had never been able to find it. Today I was more determined. I really wanted to search the sand near such a high end resort.

I took the first road into the area and saw strip malls on one side and the Ritz Carlton on the other. There were plenty of signs saying that cars left unattended more than 15 minutes would be towed away. I took the loop and didn't see any beach access or public parking. But I thought I saw a pay parking machine out of the corner of my eye.

I made another loop and found a road (unmarked) into the public parking area. Once inside there I could see an incline that looked like it headed towards the beach. I parked, gathered all my gear and headed down the incline. The incline was very steep and went on probably 1/4 mile, although it seemed like more. I made a note to not expend all my energy at the beach, I had to climb out!

When I got to the beach my heart sunk. Very clearly the sand sifter (Beach Queen) had covered the whole beach. As I found out later the seaweed rake had also been used (Beach King) and there was a mound of sand and seaweed at the south end of the beach.

After thinking about it for a while I decided to make up a strategy and try it out. The strategy was that the sifter would have an "outboard" side. The sifter skims 2-4 inches of sand and has a wire mesh that moves like a conveyor belt. It should pick up everything larger than a penny. But because of uneven sand, turns to avoid obstacles and the characteristics of the wire mesh movement, it could be possible that coins could slide off "outboard" and escape the sifter. I made a random choice and started detecting. Almost immediately I started picking up quarters.

After covering the outboard strip of the amount of beach I had decided to search (the beach continues for miles above and below the Ritz Carlton) I had to come up with another strategy. I looked in little sand coves close to the cliffs. The idea was that the Ritz would attract people who wanted a little more privacy at the beach and wouldn't be at the blanket line. The Beach Queen couldn't make it into these tight spaces. I came upon a few pocket spills and finally - GOLD. It is a fairly large 14KT gold man's wedding band with about 16 grams of weight. It almost fits on my little finger. The ACE 250 really sounded off. When I got to the south most part of the Ritz beach the ACE sounded off again the same way. But this time it was a lead sinker!

I scanned the beach one more time walking up the blanket line looking for signs of activity from before the Beach Queen sifted the sand. Each time I found one I would tell my wife that the sand signs said there was a pocket spill in a specific area. Then I would go over, search it and pick up some coins. I didn't tell her it was just a matter of luck.

On this final sweep I found one of Barbie's friends. It looked like she was not there for a honeymoon, but the other end of a marriage. There must of been a mean prenuptial because she didn't even have the clothes on her back. After a quick picture I spirited her away -this is not a nude beach!

The trip up the ramp was extremely tough and long. I got plenty of exercise today. It was only a little after 1 pm and I couldn't go on any longer. Really a good and full day.

The tally for the day was 34 quarters, 21 dimes, 10 nickels, 30 pennies, 1 wheatie (1951-D), 1 14KT gold ring, 1 meteorite fragment (I'm sticking to that story!), 2 keys, 2 wing nuts and a lead sinker. There was also two full bags of trash including litter, bottle caps, foil pieces and pop tabs.

I will be going back to finish searching the Ritz area and the beaches above and below. It doesn't look like there has been any metal detectors at the Salt Creek Beach. The sand is fantastic. It is very dry, light weight and powdery. When you make a scoop and look at it, the sand is gone leaving trash or treasure.

Whatta day! Time to fall down.

Happy hunting.

[Dugday]

Great day at the beach for you. Very nice ring and lots of exercise.

[EBCIII]

WOW! Congrats John that is one heck of a day at the beach. Very nice ring and your clad total was way up, good hunt, Beale.

[kyguy]

Nice finds!! You done good !
Shoulda had the two laying behind barbie, pose with barbie fer ya !
Enjoyed your post!!

[grasshopper]

thanks for sharing that great story and great finds!

[ChicagoRon]

Thanks for the trip John, Sweet ring!

Chicago Ron

[julieburger]

Awesome as always.

[The TINMAN]

Way To Go John ! Good days haul and plenty of excercise. Good Luck on your return trip !

The TINMAN

[Steve in PR]

A great day for you John. Those pavers did you a favor by making you get out and do what had to be done! Great ring and I will buy the meteor story!

[Gregory]

Enjoyed the post John and glad you got the gold