Most hobbies cost money. Golfing, camping, fishing, bowling, hunting, snowmobiling, etc.

However, getting a metal detector to search for buried treasure is one such hobby that can actually pay you back.

Getting yourself a metal detector will allow you to go out and search for more than loose change buried in the sand. Of course you can search for coins, but you can also search for jewelry, gold, and even war memorabilia.

Some people have even done well enough to take their metal detecting hobby and turn it into a full time profession.

Gold fields have been revived due to metal detecting technology – it’s a heck of a lot easier to strike gold when you know where to dig.

Some of the best metal detectors are offered by Minelab. Their Excalibur line even offers waterproof models that you take into and even up to depths of 200 ft when scuba diving to take your search for buried treasure to new depths (pun intended).

Once you’ve made it to your camping, hiking, or outdoor adventure destination, your automotive GPS will be of little use to you. They generally run on batteries and won’t easily fit in your pocket. Not only that, they a little lacking in the durability category so you’ll want to switch over to your handheld GPS unit.

While many higher end handheld devices do support turn by turn direction like their automotive counterparts you’ll find they’re much more at home out in the backwoods.

A handheld GPS unit is usually far more rugged and water resistant if not outright waterproof. They don’t frequently come preloaded with maps. Instead, you’ll need to purchase separate software especially with lower end devices. However, even if your GPS device isn’t loaded with maps, it’s still plenty useful as it can keep track of where you’ve been so if you get hopelessly lost you can still backtrack.

Also, if you know the coordinates of where you’re going, it can also point you in the right direction.

Which brings me to one of it’s more common uses these days, geocaching. Geocaching is a great summertime activity and one that can keep the kids entertained for hours on end. I’ve talked about geocaching at length in my guide to geocaching post and video so I won’t repeat that all here, but it sure is a heck of a lot of fun and if you haven’t given it a try, I highly recommend it.

Although I now can turn out some pretty delicious dutch oven meals my first foray into the world of dutch oven cooking was a fiasco.

Instead of doing a little bit of reading on the topic and finding out what equipment and techniques were best (and easiest) for beginners, I thought I had all I needed with the box that contained my brand new pre-seasoned campfire dutch oven. I did think it was going to have an instruction book with some recipes inside, but since I didn’t open it up until we were at the campground and ready to use it, I didn’t know that the only thing inside the box was the dutch oven and a warranty card.

The beef roast, potatoes, onions and carrots all looked delicious when I put them inside the dutch oven, but were unrecognizable chunks of gray char after being cooked in a blazing hot campfire for an hour. The hot dogs we ate instead that night were a big letdown from the delicious roast beef dinner we thought we going to have.

But instead of giving up I got educated and learned that dutch oven cooking is easy when a person has the right equipment and little knowledge. Plus the food that comes out of the dutch ovens is fantastic.

If you know someone who camps and who hasn’t tried dutch oven cooking, why not put together a “Dutch Oven Gift Set” that contains the essential equipment and a cookbook with Dutch Oven recipes?

Here’s the basics needed:

- A footed cast iron Dutch Oven (non-enameled) that has been pre-seasoned. Any size is okay but a good starter size is one that is 10″ or 12″ inches in diameter.
- Dutch Oven Carrying Case
- Dutch Oven Lid Lifter
- Dutch Oven Lid Stand
- High Heat Gloves (welding ones are fine)
- Chimney Starter for starting coals (coals are the best fuel for beginners)
- Small whisk broom to brush ash off Dutch Oven lid
- Dutch oven cookbook