The day after Christmas I received a PM from N2Treasure(Duane) in Kansas asking where I was located, as he came to Phoenix frequently and maybe we could hunt. Of course I sent him my contact info with a you bet! I am a novice and learning the ropes from a veteran would make my day. The next day I get a call from him saying he was now in town however, had not brought along his explorer. I sensed he needed a "fix" and just wanted to get his nose in the dirt. There was a large desert park near where he was staying that I thought might be good so we agreed to meet there the next day. I would recognise him by the "Big D" on his license plate. We managed to find each other despite forgetting my cell phone.As we had only my explorer 2 between us I told Duane to go ahead and set it up for himself. This took a while because I have only hunted in smartfind so far. My audio settings nearly blew his headset off. Duane saw that I was a newbie and graciously took his time and explained his settings and why he did it that way. I asked a lot of questions that day and pretty much I was "Grasshopper" and Duane was "Master". Its amazing how show and tell gets across much better than reading in a book. A park worker approached us and we both thought "here it comes" but turned out he was very nice and even gave us some tips on where to hunt as so far we had little luck at the overlook picnic site I had chose. The worker told us that there was the remains of an old Civilian Conservation Corps Camp near and gave us directions. The C's had built this park originally in the 30's, but I had no idea they actually camped here. We followed the directions to what we were told was an old volleyball court. The going was slow and tough, There were a lot of roofing and framing nails in the ground along with the usual trash. A signal found by Duane turned out to be a nice find, a 1944 nickel! just under the surface. Actually, with us switching off on the explorer allowed one to scout the area.We began by finding a concrete foundation that obviously was a shower, then other traces that allowed us to start seeing the layout of the old camp. We had been off on where we originally thought it was. In the middle of this Duane hit a good signal and up came several memorial pennies and also the 1967 dime pictured. We gave each other that "We found it now!" look and seconds later realised that the sun was setting and we had been at it for five hours and were about to run out of daylight.
Duane and I were forced to quit for the day just as we found a "meaty" place to hunt. He taught me a lot about how to hunt with the numbers instead of smartfind, I showed him what an Arizona BFR (BIG FREAKIN ROCK!) is. The digging is not easy here. A great day in spite of minimal finds. We both have SEF 10x12 coming in the mail. Duane , I will let you know how it does on the campsite as I plan to hit it again soon. Looking forward to another visit!
Duane and I were forced to quit for the day just as we found a "meaty" place to hunt. He taught me a lot about how to hunt with the numbers instead of smartfind, I showed him what an Arizona BFR (BIG FREAKIN ROCK!) is. The digging is not easy here. A great day in spite of minimal finds. We both have SEF 10x12 coming in the mail. Duane , I will let you know how it does on the campsite as I plan to hit it again soon. Looking forward to another visit!