hells_half_acre | Victory is hours!

After assembling a crack treasure hunting team, I took off towards the summit of "between the lakes" with the best gear a guy named Rick at the Plevna Home Hardware had to offer. We had three metal detectors between the 6 of us, but the one borrowed from the stranger from the hardware store was by far the best! Aunt Karen soon gave up on her metal detector, and Uncle Steven only had luck finding bottle caps and beer cans. I methodically made my way up the path with the superior machine!

Using photographic evidence, we knew I had the necklace ON when we had stopped at a collapsed moss-covered bench about halfway up the trail, but had lost it by the time I reached the top, so we started the search from the bench.

I got to the top without finding it, and was very sad. Aunt Karen had been searching so carefully (with her eyes) that she was way back on the trail, but she hadn't come up with anything either. So, I took some "sad Alix" photos at the summit, or tried to, but the sun was in my eyes and all I got was "squinty Alix" and then started to make my way back down. I figured I might as well metal detect on the way down though, because hey, it wasn't logical not to.

Anyway, as I passed through a patch of juniper bushes, Uncle Steven started asking why my metal detector went off so much in one area...I explained that I had the sensitivity up so much that it picked up rocks heavy in iron...and was going to show him an example by going over a spot I knew was nothing but a thin layer of dirt over an iron rock slightly underneath a juniper bush, when I saw it!

There, hanging ABOVE my super awesome metal detector, was something silver. My exact words were "'oly shit," out of a sudden fit of French-Canadianism that attacked me out of no where. I had so resigned myself to the idea that it was lost and gone forever, that I couldn't believe it!

So we took a bunch of victory photos and re-enacted the dramatic discovery for those who hadn't witnessed it. Uncle Steven said that since he was the sole witness, he would start looking into selling his story for the TV movie.

The chain wasn't broken or anything, so for some reason it had just come undone and eventually fallen off, hit the juniper bush, and never actually made it to the ground. The chain is very rusty after a week in pretty much constant rain (even when we were searching it would rain, get sunny, rain again, and so on...), but the pendant was still in perfect condition :)

So yay! :)