Surf & Sand

By Ozzie Osborne

Beach Access Points

Getting to a spot on the beach where you want to hunt can sometimes be a problem.  Development on the water front is at an all time high, and condos, water front homes, and businesses have all but totally blocked out the view and the old parking spots where we used to park and go to the beach are gone.  Now days you have to sometimes park and walk quite a ways to get to the spot you had in mind to hunt.  Many cities and counties have parking area's next to piers and public beaches that allow access to the beach, but are often full to overflowing, and there aren't any spaces available unless you get there early. 

Some access points are simply paths between condo's and private homes with limited parking, or no parking at all. Generally the smaller ones are used very little, because there is not much parking close to them.  They are used by
the people who live closer to the beach,  or live in one of the condo's or homes that are not directly on the beach, but are very close to it.  In the early morning you can see the tourist heading to the beach loaded down with chairs, coolers,  blankets,  toys,  and the kids dragging there parents along and encouraging them to hurry down to the water.
If you are at these same spots around sunset,  you will see these same people heading home.  Only now they are tired, sunburned, sand infested, and the kids are crying and being drug out by the hand.  The beach supplies are now carried in a jumbled mess, towels hanging off shoulders,  coolers being dragged in the sand, and often tempers are flaring up.  Not much attention is being paid to personal belongings. The day is over, and all they want to do is get back to there rooms, clean up, maybe take a nap and go out to eat or party. 

The number of people who traverse these little paths over the course of a summer is astounding.  The number of items lost going to and from the cars or condo's can also be astounding.  Since these paths are out of the way, they are also overlooked by the detectorist going to the beach themselves.  How many times have you gone to the beach and not even turned on your unit till you reach the waters edge, and the area you want to hunt?  Its not something you think about much, just a way to get from point A to point B.

A couple of summers ago I packed a lunch and a water bottle in my back pack and headed off down the beach.  I wanted to hunt some of the more secluded beach's behind some of condo's and private beach homes that are right on the beach.   It was a long hike, but proved to be well worth it,  but the walk back to the area where I had parked seemed a lot longer than the walk to it. I decided to take one of the tiny access paths between the condo's and walk back on the street,  figuring that the walk would be easier on the paved road than on the soft sand.  There was no public parking anywhere near this path, so coming back would mean a long haul on foot, return trips would be limited.  

A few months later a friend moved into a house close to this path, and I was given permission to park there and have easier access to this path and beach. On my first return trip I noticed a sandwich baggie laying off to the side of the path with a paper towel inside it. At first I ignored it,  thinking some slob had thrown his or her bag away after a lunch on the beach.  I returned three days later,  and the bag was still laying next to the path.  Thinking that it
was to far out of the way for the beach cleaning crew to find and dispose of,  I picked it up and intended to put it in a trash barrel.  I was surprised at the weight of the bag and looked inside the wadded up paper towel.   Imagine my surprise when out fell this pretty little ladies Armitron watch.

The watch was in perfect running order, and probably had been lost by one of the many tourist heading home and not paying attention to things dropped in there hurry to get home.  I soon made it a habit to turn on my unit and hunt the paths that I toke to the beach where ever I was.  There is usually a lot more trash on these paths, but as always, there was a fair share of treasures also.  Coins, lots of keys, car keys, room keys, mail box keys,  and other
treasures are found here that almost made it off the beach.  Kids made to carry things they don't want to carry often stray off the paths,  and some treasures are found just off the side of these paths.

One of my favorite finds from one of these paths was a 14k gold hoop earring, with a sterling silver cat hanging off the hoop, ala the " hang in there baby " poster style.  Another favorite was found, eyeballed on the surface actually,
by my youngest daughter who often accompanies me to the beach.  It was a beautiful tiny black hills gold ring with grapes and grape leaves on it.  The grapes and leaves are in different colors of gold and was off to the side of
the path also.  So the next time your in a hurry to get to the water,  slow down, look around, and turn on your unit before you hit that path all the way down to the beach.  You never know what your walking over or past. Good
hunting,  Ozzie