I don't know your area and I haven't even as much as seen a picture of the creeks but here is my 2 cents worth. I have done quite a bit of creek collecting and it has been pretty productive for me. If I was you, I would not weigh an opinion on one trip. Your "waterglass" may actually be half full. Do yourself a favor and take two pieces of advice from me. First, 2ndoldman is the king of metal detecting (as far as I am concerned) and if the old road is truly a road with some Civil War era travels and encampments then don't worry so much about the road because like you said, it has been reworked so many times "BUT" I doubt the troops would have camped in the road. To be sure there is some Military Strategy that would have convinced them to camp in places off the road that would have allowed them to see the road but from a point that would have given them an attack or retreat advantage. Look off the road if you ever decide to reconsider metal detecting.
My second piece of advice concerning creek collecting is (in my area) not always, but most of the time, artifacts or fossils that wash into the creek don't stay on the surface long. In other words, I find 95% of my creek finds below the sand on top of the hardpan. Most of my creeks have a sandy bed just under the water but below the sand is eventually a hard bottom. A hardpan of clay. I find that the water action works artifacts and fossils down through the sand and they settle on the hard clay bottom. Take a T Handled probe rod with you, if you can find a shallow creek with a sandy bottom, probe the sand looking for a hard bottom surface a foot or less below the sand and if you locate this spot, start screening shovelfuls from the bottom at the hardpan level Shallow sand and shallow water is preferred because it is almost impossible to effectively screen if it is deeper because the water will wash the sand back off your shovel.
If none of this advice works for you then just enjoy the scenery and peace and quiet because that is priceless as well. Good luck to you and I really hope you start finding stuff in the creeks.
My second piece of advice concerning creek collecting is (in my area) not always, but most of the time, artifacts or fossils that wash into the creek don't stay on the surface long. In other words, I find 95% of my creek finds below the sand on top of the hardpan. Most of my creeks have a sandy bed just under the water but below the sand is eventually a hard bottom. A hardpan of clay. I find that the water action works artifacts and fossils down through the sand and they settle on the hard clay bottom. Take a T Handled probe rod with you, if you can find a shallow creek with a sandy bottom, probe the sand looking for a hard bottom surface a foot or less below the sand and if you locate this spot, start screening shovelfuls from the bottom at the hardpan level Shallow sand and shallow water is preferred because it is almost impossible to effectively screen if it is deeper because the water will wash the sand back off your shovel.
If none of this advice works for you then just enjoy the scenery and peace and quiet because that is priceless as well. Good luck to you and I really hope you start finding stuff in the creeks.
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