The $50 mystery box from a camping store had a titanium spork, a fire starter, and a compass that actually works

I picked it up on a whim last month at a chain outdoor store, figuring it'd be full of junk. The fire starter was a cheap ferro rod that threw sparks on the first try. The compass held a steady bearing for a whole weekend hike near Lake Placid. Has anyone else had a mystery box surprise them with something that wasn't totally useless?

2 comments

2 Comments

sams251mo agoMost Upvoted

Dude same thing happened to me last year! I grabbed a random box from a local hardware store thinking it'd be mostly trash, but it had a little folding saw that actually cut through branches no problem. Still use that thing on every camping trip, totally worth the gamble.

cora5621mo ago

My buddy Mike grabbed one of those mystery boxes from a camping shop near his cabin in the Adirondacks and ended up with a little hand-crank radio that actually pulled in weather stations from two counties away. He still uses it during blackouts even though he bought it just for laughs. That thing has saved him more than once when his phone died in the middle of a storm.