Lost ring found at Sleeping Bear Dunes in Empire Michigan.

I received a call from Ali that she had lost her wedding ring on the beach at the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes. Ali and some friends had hiked 3 miles to the beach at Lake Michigan. That’s 6 miles round trip up and down the dunes. Also, a big issue is. Metal detectors are not allowed to be used in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park. So the first order of business is getting permission to use a detector in the area. Getting the permission took a day by itself but was granted.

The next order of business was me thinking about carrying a detector 6 miles up and down the dunes. I took the best detector for the job, the one I’m most familiar with but not the lightest of the detectors I own, the Minelab CTX3030. The only other things I took were my car keys and Garrott pinpointer. I wanted to travel as light as possible. The hike to the area took me 2 1/2 hours. The search time for the ring was less than 10 minutes. Ali had sent me pictures from the spot they set up at. If your location is turned in your settings on your phone, it saves a GPS position. I had the exact GPS position Ali was at when she lost her ring. This had worked very well for me in locating the exact area someone was at when they lost their ring. I can take a search from 6 hours down to 10 minutes with the exact area the ring was lost. I texted Ali a picture of the ring to ensure it was the correct one before starting the hike back out. I needed to get the ring as fast as possible because Ali was moving back to Ireland in 4 days. I got the ring in the mail overnight, making sure Ali had her ring before her flight.

I’ll attach a bad video of this adventure. I was whooped after all the up and down the hills. The hike was 6.2 miles total. My figures were all over the place in the video. I’m waiting on a picture of Ali and will attach it when I get it.