Treasure Seekers of San Diego

 Welcome to November Everyone;
As I greeted you last month I said the end of the year was in sight, now it has fully arrived and is upon us! By the time you read this, Halloween will have spooked us and the next fright is Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas and New Years. We had postponed our Painted Gorge outing due to expected heat, and in fact it showed up, and then rained hard enough to have flowing water in the Borrego Springs area in the afternoon. This month we are off to the Freedom Claim on the weekend of the 12th and 13th, we moved the outing to the 2nd weekend so as to be out of the way of those traveling and preparing for Thanksgiving.
In October Charlene suggested at the Board meeting that we encourage folks to show up at Freedom Claim for the Duisenberg events as this keeps the claim jumping to a minimum. There are 2 events still coming up, Nov 2-6 Dirt Party, and Dec 30-Jan 1 Push Dig.
For planning purposes the Annual Christmas Party will be December 18th from 4:30-8:30 and the exchange game will be played again. Gifts should be less than $20 and unisex.
Nov 6- Metal Detecting 8:00-10:00 at La Jolla Shores
Nov 12-13 Freedom Claim Outing WATCH THE WEATHER, POSSIBLE POSTPONEMENT!!!
RAIN, WIND, AND COLD PREDICTED

NOVEMBER MEETING

There were 77 members and guests in attendance. Unfortunately we had to reschedule Chuck Jojola and his presentation on dousing techniques that he practices once again due to his birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHUCK!! At the moment it is scheduled for the December meeting and will cover treasure, map, and vein dousing. Don Starr filled in with a great presentation on different pans and classifying screens. It was interesting to see both the variety and history of gold pans. He brought his “Bateau” pan which is a copy of the very first steel pans used, which is very large (16-20″) and a smooth shallow conical shape that looks like a Chinese hat. An interesting side note is, this is the pan used by the last two of the champions of the World Panning Contest. We learned that it takes a bit to learn how to use it, but it is then fast, goes through a lot of material ( think 5 gallon bucket of dirt in 3 minutes or so), and loses very little gold. Don also had examples of most of the current crop of plastic pans with riffles, and some of  the more unusual ones like the Banjo pan, Hex pan, drop and slope center, as well as, those with multiple size riffle areas in one pan . Special Thanks to Don for volunteering a great presentation on short notice. There was a report on the AMRA Oktober Fest held at the Slash X Cafe south of Barstow. it was well attended, had a great seeded hunt, but was plagued by very high winds like the rest of the desert areas that weekend. Jeannie Pierce brought in a native silver nugget she found metal detecting on the Freedom claim. The first I have ever heard of there, inspite of the fact we are only a few miles from the Kelly Mine, once the biggest silver mine in California. I usually tell people Freedom isn’t the best place for detecting, but in the last several years 2 gold nuggets and this silver nugget have been found, so Freedom keeps surprising us, usually it is great for drywashing and has small, round, flat, bright flakes and angular fine gold up to bb or double bb size.
The meeting ended with the raffles.

METAL DETECTING
This past Sunday November 6th we went down to La Jolla Shores Beach for the post meeting Beach Metal Detecting. 4 of us showed up for another morning of metal detecting with a bright sunny morning, originally we were going to hunt here last month, but a 6.2 high tide wasn’t going to leave much beach. Surprisingly, there were lots of targets, in the recent past this beach has been both dirty (lots of metal trash) and a bit lackluster in returns .
Jerryk                  10 coins  $1.76 mans Tungsten ring, Birch Aquarium penny, 2 telescoping marshmellow sticks
Bruce Madson      9 coins  $1.07 Opal Turtle ring,  small turtle bangle, 2 brass snap clips
Rich Hegyi           28 coins  $.95 small silver ring, 1Euro coin (worth $1)
Alice Symons  new member and 1st beach hunt. Returning to detecting after a break

Next Hunt
December 11 Oceanside Harbor 8-10 on the north end

No second hunt with Frank for November and December due to the holidays

NIGHT SEEDED HUNT

Just for something different and a new twist on a seeded hunt I wanted to try one at night. I have heard the machines work better after the sun goes down, less interference and more sensitivity. Well, mine was indeed different, dimes were much louder and popped right out, pennies screamed, and the tokens really screamed. We had 19 hunters and all told 25 or so for the picnic beforehand. Special thanks to Bruce for his lumpias , Rich for the hot dog chili, and everyone else that brought sides and desert which went well with Chicago Dogs I provided. All told 32 dogs were consumed. A special thanks to JerryG for setting up the hunt field on the volleyball courts and planned out the prizes for the 30 or so tokens. 1300 coins were planted and it was very different using just head lamps to see. Parking was tough, but not impossible early on, and we had to wait for a fire ring for the post hunt beach fire. Things got better as the later it got. I was last out at 11:30.
Numbers wise 1399 coins 10 foreign 8 jewelry 30 tokens
Robert Cook             163 coins   1 token
JerryK                        139 coins  3 tokens besides taking pictures and quitting a little early to give times 
JerryG                        135 coins  3 tokens Donated to those with the lowest numbers and no tokens
Rich Hegyi                  126 coins  3 tokens
Randy Hegyi                85 coins
James Boyd                 85 coins
Bruce Madsen             84 coins  1 token
Robert Waldrip            80 coins  4 tokens
Stephen Keenan          80 coins  4 tokens
John Troseth                74 coins  2 tokens
Souliane Bensamoil     70 coins 3 tokens
Trish Hegyi                   65 coins  1 token
Linda Starr                   55 coins
Neil Weber                   52 coins
Donald Brunt               39 coins  1 token
Don Starr                     29 coins
Bill Pieper                     24 coins
Ginger Pieper               10 coins
Overall find rate of 94% Good Going All

THERE IS A NEW MEETING LOCATION!!!

THE ESCONDIDO COLUMBUS CLUB
515 W VALLEY PARKWAY (corner of Center City Pkwy x Valley Pkwy)
the white building with the large American flag painted on it at the southwest corner.

For those of you wondering,  our usual meeting place, Park Avenue Community Center, changed their protocols post pandemic and couldn’t promise us accommodations on a regular monthly basis in the evenings or Saturday daytime, so we had to find a new home.
 The claims have remained open to members in “Good Standing”  for the duration, but now we have begun to update and issue new current membership cards beginning this month November. It will be necessary to fill out your annual paperwork to continue to be a member in “Good Standing”. I will cut folks a little slack, but by January you will need the new card to use the claims.

Stay tuned for more details as they come up.

Click on the President’s Message for the latest.