Trip Back to the Secret Cave Yields Little Treasure and Lots of Disappointment......

[Garrett424]

I went back to my "secret" cave after work to see what I could find with my new machine.

I rushed back there straight from work, hiked back through the woods and climbed up to the cave.
To my shock and horror, the cave floor was dug up in a dozen or more spots, there were rocks, pulltabs, bottle caps and other trash tossed off to the side and the holes weren't even filled back in. It was a real mess.

I decided to detect anyway in the very limited time I had (maybe 90 minutes; tops) in the hopes that whoever did this may have missed something good. All that I found besides a few more pull tabs, a few bits of aluminum and another railroad spike were these two items:



I got one 1982 copper penny that rang up like a dime and a hot pebble that read like a nickel. That's it.

I was dying to get back there all day and see what I may have passed over with my other machine but it appears that I was a day late and a dollar short. The place has been pretty well cleaned out. Being the optimist that I am I hunted until dark anyway but I found nothing noteworthy at all.

I'm disappointed; not only because someone beat me to whatever may have been left, but that they trashed the place so bad. This is exactly the type of thing that gives the hobby a bad name.

Shame on whoever did this.
The least they could have done was put the dirt and rocks back into the holes and taken the pile of trash out with them. I took it myself and got rid of it.

But, tomorrow's another day right??

One good thing did happen afterward though. I stopped in Radio Shack to pick up some alligator clips. I was discussing detecting with the girl who works there and she gave me a tip on a hunting spot she has access to in Western MD. It's an old farm that she has some family ties to where there were Confederate camps during the Civil War. I had to leave but she said to stop back and she'll give me some exact locations and other information.
It sounds interesting. She seems pretty cool too, not to mention extremely friendly. Anyway.........

Thanks for looking, even though there's nothing to look at and HH

 

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[WHADIFIND]

This is one reason why people think badly of this hobby. Because there really are pirates out there. Ones who don't give a hoot for our namby pamby feelings about do goody stuff. All they know is mine, mine, mine!!!! Like any 2 year old. Let somebody else clean up the mess, all I want is the GOLD!

Well, last time I heard of this was from someone who had posted a pic that had the gps information embedded. (If you don't turn it off, you're posting the where too, not just a pic) If that's not the case either you mentioned it to someone or someone else just happened to find the cave the same way you did.

In any case, I hate to hear that there are people out there lurking with just one agenda. But, forewarned is fore-armed.
Sorry to hear of your encounter. Keep at it, there will be more.

 

[digndeep]

man what a bummer!..you know I mite not mind someone finding my spot,but to leave trash&holes....somebody deserves a beating!!

 

[Garrett424]

man what a bummer!..you know I mite not mind someone finding my spot,but to leave trash&holes....somebody deserves a beating!!

I agree. The early bird gets the worm and all that but the trash and destruction are uncalled for.
To me, if you have the energy to dig the hole, how freakin' hard is it and how much more effort would it take to at least kick the dirt back in the holes and smooth it out a bit with your foot??

And if you don't want to haul the trash out, bury it or something rather than just leave it strewn all over the place. If it's buried, the next hunter is likely to dig it up and haul it out anyway right??

My son always says that "people suck". I'm beginning to agree with him in certain cases. He and I had a great day in the woods over the summer only to come back to the car to find we had been robbed. Someone took a bunch of our stuff from the car, including my prescription medicine that I really needed at that time. It was nothing you can get high on or sell either so what was the point??
Some people just like to steal.

They also took one of my tool boxes. This is in a place that I never even had to lock my vehicle just a few years ago. Some of these places are getting too well known and many of the people showing up are punks and thieves.

 

[CoinandRelicMan]

Hi Garrett sorry to hear of the bad experiences, hope things go better for you in the future ! Did you use a rake any on that cave floor? If there is much iron it might be masking some goodies.

 

[g-olden years]

Bummer! I hope that every future hunt you have this year will be enjoyable and loaded with super finds! Andi

 

[BurntBear]

If you make that trip out to Western Maryland, keep an eye out for the stones. =)

 

[Old Dude]

Hope the lead you got pans out for you. If nothing else, maybe the young lady will become a hunting partner. That would be cool, right?

 

[treblehunter]

Don't rebury it, take it with you, its trash. I can't tell you how many times I have found the same mess you did. I know one of the places the guy really did ruin the permission STATEWIDE, I seen the guy and came back later to find his mess then found out a couple days later the game pardons had found it too (must of been before I cleaned it up) Word I got was they had problems like that and that was the straw that broke the camels back.
I was sick for days about it, but just moved on, keep looking for spots, nobody said it was going to be easy.

 

[MUDSLINGER]

I agree sometimes humans are a disgrace (ie) the knock out game: someone walks up and punches you in the face to see if they can knock you out.

 

[Garrett424]

I agree sometimes humans are a disgrace (ie) the knock out game: someone walks up and punches you in the face to see if they can knock you out.

So many people are walking through their entire lives in a state of complete unconsciousness.
Those who engage in things such as the knockout "game" are not only unconscious but they're incapable of empathy.
That's the very definition of a sociopath.

We took away the ability to teach our kids VIRTUE in the public school system. We're now reaping what we've sown; or in this case, we chose not to sow. Some people are actually surprised at the unintended consequences. These brilliant ideas are never thought through before they're implemented and everyone suffers as a result.

 

[BurntBear]

Makes me glad I was home-schooled.

 

[Garrett424]

Makes me glad I was home-schooled.

Yeah. Makes me glad my kids were home schooled!

Honestly, I picked up every bad habit of my youth in public school. I didn't learn any of them at home. Ultimately, I made the choices but had I not been exposed maybe I would have made some different choices. Plus, I was so young I didn't have the wisdom to truly know better. I just hadn't been living long enough.

IMO, modern day public school is child abuse. That may sound harsh but I base that on my own experience.
There was no way my own kids were going into that environment and being handed over to "the system" to be "educated".