Recently I received a call from Trina asking me to try to locate a ring lost in Horsetooth Reservoir. She and her husband Ben had spent the day hiking around the reservoir and wanted to cool off in the water. She wadded out into the water; the water level drops off quickly so about 10-15 feet from shore and she was already up to her shoulders and cooling off nicely. Even though she could touch bottom easily she had to mover her hands in a treading water motion in order to stay in one place due to waves from the nearby boaters. It wasn’t long when Trina felt her wedding ring (handed down from her great grandmother) slip from her finger. Trina and Ben spent the next several hours trying to find her ring with no success. That night she found my number and contacted me and soon we made arrangements for Stephanie Hobbs and I to come and do a search.
Sunday morning Stephanie and I gathered our gear and began our hour long drive north. Stephanie brought her XP Deus and associated gear, I brought my Minelab Manticore, waterproof headphones, pouch and two water scoops.
Upon arrival at the reservoir, we were VERY fortunate to find a parking spot and pulled in (timing is everything). Trina and Ben met us as we pulled in, they live in Cheyenne, Wyoming so it was no short drive for them either. They took us down to the location of our search site and Trina showed us how deep she was in reservoir.
Stephanie and I spent over two hours in the cold mountain water searching trying to locate the rings. At one point I needed to get out of the water to prevent hypothermia and warm up on the large rocks that lined the shore. The scoops that I had brought were useless as the area of our search had large flat rocks that left crevasses with a thin layer of mud on the rocks. I tried feeling for the ring with my bare feet and pulled up many rocks (I may have monkey feet), that was unsuccessful. Finally, I decided to detect mark the spot by Stephanie holding my scoop upside down and I would dive under the water and try to feel for the object (hopefully the ring). This was a good idea but not great. Stephanie suggested that we use her MI6 probe since it is waterproof, what a great idea. Eventually we wondered out to deeper water, up to my chin. I heard a great signal (31) with a perfectly round dot on the line of my Manticore. With Stephanie perched on two larger rocks so that she was above water holding the scoop to mark the spot and my detector I started to dive again. After several handfuls of muck, I finally surfaced with the rings in my hand.
Ring Recovered 7/27/2025
I was on my way back from spending a great weekend camping in Gunnison, Colorado when I got a call from a young man who’s wife lost her wedding band at Boulder reservoir. He had said they were spending a family day on the beach when she took her ring off to put on sunscreen. It was when they were leaving they realized she did not have her ring on.