<p><strong>After a month of trying to dig in frozen ground we left for Wenatchee \& Lake Chelan Washington last week.</strong> The weather was great and we really had a good time.</p> <p>For any of you who wonder about these "new" detectors. I can say they find stuff, Valuable stuff, well sometimes. One of our best finds wasn't discovered until we got home. My dad looked at everything and right away said "hey you found an old bottle opener". At the time we figured it was one of those cheap wrenches you get when you buy a desk or other furniture that needs assembled. But it had not been cleaned up yet.</p> [split] <p>Turns out it’s an old opener from a Spokane Washington Brewery. Lake Chelan is detector heaven. Only spent a few hours, could have spent a few years. My main reason to go back to Chelan was to try to recover my class ring lost in 1975. I never found the ring, but did find many firsts: $3.23 in coins, nothing old, but more than I've ever found in a couple hours. There were hair clips, a car opener, and a stainless steel nose ring. Pull tabs and beer caps, rusty nails and washers. I only found one 22 brass. In Montana the empty brass count on an average search is 75% of the total targets dug. Well in my yard anyway.</p> <p>Our ranch is very old, and I'm just getting started because things are still frozen. Our best find was in Wenatchee at a family's yard. An early 1900 Gilt-Top Beer opener from a S.R \& M Co. in Spokane Washington, It was made to double as a skate key as well. We are having another small snow storm today. So for now the gold I'm after is still frozen into the mountains. I'll keep you all posted as I start the search for the yellow nuggets of Western Montana.</p>