Local School Hunt

Having put out a notice to local CO folks on FMDF to see if anyone was game to get together this weekend, and getting no replies, I decided to get out by myself. I had did a little research, mistaking the high school on a 1882 map of Golden with the same spot that Mitchell Elementary now sits on. But in doing so I was able to learn that in 1931, Central School was built and became what is now Mitchell, so to me that sounded like a good chance for silver.

I headed out just after lunch time and actually ended up stopping at New Loveland Mine Park, which is a block away from the school. It was built in 1996, so I wasn't expecting much, thus I wasn't disappointed by the meager $0.33 I pulled. I did land a neat little monkey charm in the tot lot though.

After messing around there, I headed up the street to the school. I'm not naive enough to think I was going to score tons of silver here... Colorado, and my area especially has loads of hobbyists who get out everyday, and I'm sure this place has been picked over. But I went at it for a few hours anyhow. Strangely, the two tot lots at the school had nothing, no coins, no trash, nothing. But I'd say about 90% of the clad I found here was in the grassy area right in front of the main entrance. Within about 2 feet of the sidewalk on either side dime and quarters just starting popping.

I took a break for a few minutes before tackling the large baseball/soccer field and got this pic of the School of Mines "M" in the side of the mountain. It was originally put there in 1908.

So right, next was the large task of the athletic field. It being a new spot I decided to do the wandering around technique and just hope to score. The area between the two soccer goals seemed most promising, and it did happen to work out. Just outside the far goal I scored a quarter hit, which happened to be a quarter. But then after digging it, I rescanned the area and came up with a weird signal that would not display a VDI, but the signograph on my XLT had a nice grouping of bars in the "gold range". I dug and bam, about 3 inches down I nailed this ring. No apparent markings, and the stones are obviously fake, but it does have a nice gold color to it.

It was a good days take, landed 43 coins @ $3.63.

Boulder Hunt With Troy

This morning I met up with my new huntin' buddy Troy (Digger Magoo on FMDF) at 7am in the Coors brewery Factory Tour parking lot at the corner of 13th & Ford in Downtown Golden. We loaded up in my truck and hit 93 up to Boulder.

Just getting into town, turning left on Baseline, and a few blocks down on the left was our first destination, Chautauqua Park. It's nestled right at the base of an outcropping of flatirons that just make for the best scenery one could ask for. It didn't take long to gear up and begin our conquest of the parks green.

The main area we hit was the large Chautauqua Green. It's surrounded by large trees and has a few large rocks where one can imagine people have sit under or on for decades. And it just so happens that Troy scored two silver rings in exactly those type of spots. In the top/down image below, the yellow dots mark the two areas the rings where found. One ring appeared to be a small, silver and turquoise ring, the other, a thick silver band with a typical Colorado Native American motif.

We stumbled around for a bit after hitting around the green, making our way up towards the auditorium. We then headed back towards the truck, hitting up the middle of the green before retiring for some pictures and a lunch of Taco Bell. We should have done our homework beforehand though, because up by that auditorium is where the older stuff probably was, being as the building has been there since 1898.

After lunch, we rolled on over to Scott Carpenter Park. This place is pretty interesting, in the fact that prior to 1955, it was a dump. They filled it with dirt, planted grass, and now it's a nice large park for the masses right up next to Boulder Creek.

I was pretty skeptical about this site. Just a few inches down is layers of trash, so who knew what we might find. But it turned out to be another great location. We hunted all over from the baseball field to the creek, and between the two of us landed lots of clad. The only place there I regret not hitting up was the tot lot. It looks really busy, as it was on this day, and I'm sure there's a few bucks in clad floating around in there.

A few neat instances occurred at this park. The first being a sweet 5 quarter pocket spill Troy landed in the grass on the backside of the tot lot. He said it rang up as a +90 on his M6, and his first plug produced two quarters stacked on top. He put his pinpointer back in the plug and it kept ringing... landing him 3 more. Not long after, in the huge field in front of the mound, he scores a 1980 SBA dollar, a really cool find. And on my last dig for the day, I hit a solid +88 on my XLT and pulled out a plug with two stacked quarters (one was a 1976 Bicentennial), but my pinpointer hinted towards more. Ended up with another nickel, dime and two pennies in the hole. At this point while I was digging, Troy was walking over with a large silver bracelet in his hand he had just found inscribed with "Movement With Meaning", which turns out to be a multi-sensory program for Alzheimer's patients.

And my one cool find of the day was a neat City of Boulder "Voice & Site" Tag Program dog tag. These little green tags are for dogs to wear when they have proven their ability to be walked and controlled by Voice & Sight and do not require a leash. How proactive of the city.

After the park, and with the impending doom of rain and thunder presiding over the flatirons, we headed back to Golden and stopped at the small Vanaover Park right off of Clear Creek. Neither of us landed much coinage here, myself only getting a quarter, but we were able to get this really cool picture taken in front of this massive tree cross-section.

It was a really nice day to get out, enjoy the air and view, and bring home a few bucks. Below are some pics of our final counts, 201 coins @ $18.06

Parfet Park Afternoon

The girlfriend knew I had been itching for a chance to get out with the machine. So she said, "Hey, why don't we go downtown and you can metal detect Parfet Park while I sit in the shade under a tree and read?" How could I not say no!?

Parfet park is in prime territory in historic downtown Golden. On the land that is now the park the very first building was erected. Sadly, everyone in the area knows this and the park gets pounded daily, and probably has for years.

I talked to a few people during my outting, one being a guy who missed the hobby, and seeing me made him feel like dusting off his old machine and getting back into it. Another guy told me he saw two fellas around 530 this morning hitting the park. Which makes perfect sense because the reason I was there was that Buffalo Bill Days has been going on and the park has been filled with people the past few days.

Anyhow, I ended up with a good two hours of swinging and was rewarded with $1.44 over 24 coins as well as a neat "Virgo" Zodiac charm and a Golden, Colorado button with the periodic table element symbol for "Gold".

RTD Token on Lookout Mountain

Today the g/f and I decided to hit up some local places of historical significance. The first place we stopped was the Colorado Railroad Museum. A cheap entrance fee was all it took to spend a few hours viewing their indoor exhibits and then outside to all of the coolness. Even better that you can get in quite a few of their displays.

After that we headed up to Buffalo Bill's Grave at the top of Lookout Mtn. here in Golden. Not much going up there, but on the way down we stopped at a little pull-off that has access to some rocks that stick off the mountain. On the way back to the truck I noticed the token pictured above, an RTD token from the public transportation here in Denver.

Girlfriend's Intro to The Hobby

After a morning spent picking up our brand new 2-piece sectional couch and then lunch with her Grandpa, we didn't have much else to do for the day. And since the little miss wants to try metal detecting with me here in the near future, I figured it was time to start letting her learn to use my X-Terra 30.

She didn't want to be seen by all the neighbors in the front yard, so we hunted one part of our side yard. The ground was good for digging, but sadly, the good targets were pretty nonexistent. She is now the self-proclaimed "Nail Queen" as probably 90% of her finds were nails. I still don't understand this Colorado soil... even on the X-Terra, which I learned and found a bunch of silver with in VA, I just couldn't predict it here. All the penny hits were nails, hell, even a few dime and quarter hits were nails. Granted, most of them were non-repeating, broken signals, ut to learn, I had her dig 'em all so she could get a feel.

As you can see from the pic, $0.12 with a dime and two pennies, and then a load of nails.

First Hunt of 2010

Well, if you want to call it that. Being used to Virginia Beach and the fact that even when it's cold, the ground never really freezes and I can detect all year, I sure wasn't prepared for the tundra here in Colorado.

I first noticed what I'm guessing are deer tracks in the snow in my front yard, it's the only logical answer, and if you do an image search in Google for "Deer Tracks", you find similar ones. They seem to about the size that would indicate a slightly over 3 year old deer, just my opinion.

I went out in my front yard today, and was pleased that the snow really didn't effect the XLT much, and with the coil cover on, it slid across the surface real nice... took a lot of the weight and effort out of the swing. The ground sure was tough, a 2" hole was really all I could muster. It was like chipping concrete. Sadly, besides finding out that apparently I have a grass sprinkler system that rings up a solid +88, I didn't find much... just a few clad coins. There weren't even really trash signals either, so when the ground thaws I'll get back into it.

And lastly, I had a bunch of furry visitors as well, Fox Squirrels. There were 5 running around, and after some careful observation, two were together, and the others were trying to move in on the girl.