I’ve decided to do a litter comparison between beaches I end up going to and swinging a coil @. I’m doing this because Erin, Caspian and I do go to loads of beaches. Although almost every beach we hit initially looks to be clean, there is most definitely a major difference between all of them, and that’s simply put, CLEANLINESS.

So starting with the Gananoque Ontario public beach. This is a relatively small beach. I was there, back a couple months ago now, in the beginning of June 2022 when I first got a metal detector. After never using one and mine was straight out of the box, I was absolutely flabbergasted at the state of the beach, just below it’s surface. What lurked below in the sand where little kids were playing was horrific.

As a beginner metal detectorist I wasn’t expecting too much to be honest, but what I came across at this beach almost turned me off of the hobby immediately. I found nuts and bolts, broken glass, sharp wires, bottle caps everywhere, sparkler wire, wire mesh cage, nails, and the reminance of a syringe and needle. I had taken everything I found and got rid of it properly, however I almost just returned the metal detector to the store and got my money back.

The picture above makes Gananoque (locates right in the heart of the 1000 islands

looks like a decent beach to take your kids right? Well I honestly wouldn’t recommend it. (Very dangerous)

Ok Next up?

Dry Lake Beach.

If I’m to be brutally honest in these beach reviews then I was expecting more from this beach. Maybe people have already combed this beach throughly or maybe it is the fact I didn’t know what I was doing with my machine or really what to look for but this beach was fairly disappointing as far as finds go. I did manage a nice little Children’s (matchbox) car toy, & 2 x Canadian pennies, but other than a few spread out pieces of garbage, a few bottle caps, pull tabs, a buried log in the water with nails in it and a metal tag, off a propane stove. There was not much else to be found I don’t think. And after removing the garbage I did find this beach is Clean and I would recommend taking your kids there for a swim. All the locals go there with their children. The lake is shallow and has sand bars off the shore from ankle deep, that drop right off over your head instantly. It’s crystal clear water until you walk in it and the Marl swirls around, but that settles quickly enough. It is privately owned property that allows public access to the small lake. If your visiting, keep it clean or this little gem will be closed to the public.

Beach number 3

Sandbanks Provincial Park

Ok so Sandbanks Provincial park was honestly one of the cleanest beaches I’ve been to to date. Now this black is enormous and usually very packed. So it would have been impossible for me to detect everywhere at this beach. It might take a month or more for someone to detect this entire beach, but for the small portion I happened to occupy the day we went , that specific area was immaculate.

I don’t remember finding much at all other than the regular pull tab/bottle cap but only a couple of those, usually beaches are rotted with those, and a matchbox toy car, a couple pieces of wire , tent pegs are of course all over this beach lol, that was it. no nails, bolts, syringes or metal roof shingles lol ( you’d be surprised what you find at a beach lol) nope I think this beach was fairly clean. And really clean for the size of it.

Next up might be my favourite little beach to date!

Amhurst Island Beach

What a hidden little Jem of a beach. This beach is maybe a KM in length maybe a hair longer than that, it is rocky, but with enough sand that it would still be considered to be a Sandy beach. But the moment you start digging lol your digging rocks. Lol.

Ok so this beach is my favorite to date for a few reasons now. 1st and foremost it’s a fairly clean beach. Sure, like everywhere else you will find garbage. But it’s minimal and it’s not harmful garbage. The garbage on this beach is more along the bottle cap/ tab area rather than the dirty needles.

Ok reason #2 it is the only beach to date where I/we have found anything in the jewellery category. I tend to be searching for coins and jewelry pieces mostly, and if relics, gold, or other precious metal happens to be there then I consider those items a bonus.

We have been to several beaches and I have only found 3 jewelry items total and 2 of those were at this Amhurst Island beach. The water is great for swimming. It’s not always the busiest beach, which suits me fine. And it’s not far from our home.

So my goal beach to talk about in this blog will be:

Wellington Beach

Now I’m not sure you can really call this a beach or not because there is no sand until you get about 10 feet into the water, at which point it become a very nice place to swim. I should warn tho, this specific place has a severe undertow (current) and is known to be a killer, especially in the late spring early summer months.

Anyway this beach is all rock, it’s about 1km in length and the county now charges people to use this beach, not worth it in my opinion. If you are going to pay for beach use? Then I suggest going to a beach that has one, a beach I mean. Anyway,

As for metal detecting here? Well it is very trashy. There are some treasures to be had on this beach and to be completely honest now that I have the Vanquish 540 where I can discriminate some of those trashy items out of my program I may try it 1 more time, only this time I’ll go it alone. This rocky haven was no place for our little man.

The last time I was at this location I managed to dig through rock and after pulling a fair amount of crap I did manage my first ring from this location. It made my trip worth it, I don’t think Erin will be back any time soon tho lol.

As summer 2022 starts to wind down, & as I hit more beaches I will continue this post to give my opinion on the beach at hand once I write the new post I’ll put a link below on this post so anyone reading this can continue with the story. Cheers

If you come across this and find it interesting let me know by commenting or sending me a message. I’d like to know who actually sees these things or reads them lol.

UpDate September 1st 2022.

Last night I went to Cobourg West beach. This beach for its size was surprisingly clean to me. For the size of this beach and the activity it sees I was surprised to see that there were really not too many beer cans and other garbage items, of course there really weren’t too many decent items either lol in my personal opinion I would recommend this beach for families with young children to go to. Was there garbage? Yes of course there was as there is on any beach I’ve gone to, to date, however the majority of the garbage items were found on the most easterly section of the beach which is also the quieter end of the beach.

I’m 5.5 hours of digging this is all I found other than 2 beer cans which I through out in the garbage cans that are on the beach in several locations.

The link to my Coburg beach adventure can be found here

https://swingingcoils.family.blog/2022/09/01/cobourg-ontario-beach/