Tolt River Tag | The Ring Finders

“Difficult ring search in swift current of Tolt River leads to family heirloom reunited with its owner!”

Yesterday night I got a text from newlyweds Trisha & Paul regarding Paul’s lost wedding ring. They had been spending the day floating around in Tolt River, very close to where it merges with the Snoqualmie River in Carnation, WA.

At some point, Pauls’s new (to him) wedding ring slipped off in the strong current in chest high waters. The ring was his father’s and was a one of a kind gold nugget & 14k band with a diamond! Needless to say, they were distraught and searched until they were exhausted. Thankfully, they somehow found me online, texted me and we set up a meeting for Sunday morning.

I arrived, geared up in my fishing waders and chose one of my waterproof detectors for the hunt. We hiked from the parking lot for about 10 minutes, crossing the winding river in at least 2 locations. Hiking isn’t easy in waders! Once we arrived in the area, I began detecting the perimeter, testing the depth and current. It was very difficult detecting in such strong moving water, and I was doing all I could not to end up soaked! Once I got the hang of it, I began gridding and was coming up with no targets, aside from a bottle cap and a rock containing natural iron deposits.

I was getting tired and needed a break after about an hour of exhausting searching, but I decided to give it a little more, further down stream. I speculated that how fast the water was moving.. maybe the current pushed the ring further, as it fell, than they thought…

Some time later, I got a hit and had to move some good size rocks with my scoop, but could see a faint, ring-sized glimmer on the bottom! Minutes later, it was in my scoop and Paul & Trisha were very emotional as I told them I had done it! I have to admit, I felt emotional too… this was a hard hunt and it was exhausting to fight the current as long as I did. Especially since I was fighting a head cold!

We all celebrated on our hike back to the parking lot, and the newlyweds were super thankful they found me. I’m really glad they found me too! 😉