My wife Rita and I took up metal detecting as a hobby soon after the start of the Covid 19 pandemic. We wanted to stay physically active, but still needed to keep ourselves away from crowds.

It’s been lots of fun going on treasure hunting adventures a few times a week, and we’ve found a good amount of coins, jewelry and other relics.

But Minnesota isn’t the ideal place to detect year-round. Once the ground freezes and the snow starts falling, detecting is just a memory until the spring thaw.

Although Rita doesn’t like detecting in the cold, I often try to extend my detecting season into late fall and early winter. This December I found a few playgrounds where the wood chips were still soft enough to locate and dig up a few targets, even though the air temperature was in the 20s.

On an old dirt path in one heavily-wooded park in late December, my detector gave a signal that indicated it was in the range of a silver coin. I couldn’t even make a dent in the frozen ground, so I decided to memorize the location and come back a few days later with a hammer, chisel and even my cordless drill with a masonry bit.

It worked! After drilling a few holes around the signal and prying up clumps of frozen dirt with the chisel, there it was - a 1935 silver Mercury dime.

I guess that experience sort of reveals my desire to search for treasure. Some may call it more of an obsession. But I’m realistic enough to recognize that there are limitations to a warm-weather hobby.

So now that the air temperature is below zero, the ground is covered in snow and frozen solid, I’ve found an alternative. I’ve begun watching YouTube videos of other detectorists searching for targets in warmer parts of the country.

One such treasure hunter calls himself Paystreak Superfreak. He lives in the Pacific Northwest where temperatures are more moderate in winter.

I like his videos because he mounts his camera on top of his head. That way the viewer sees and hears exactly what he does as he’s walking through parks and fields swinging his detector.

Although he sometimes digs up soda cans, pulltabs and aluminum foil, he also finds lots of coins, rings and other relics. Watching his videos is as close as I’ll get to detecting on my own - at least for a few more weeks. Hopefully.