When we hiked at Cougar Mountain recently, we kept passing piles of white powder on the ground. Someone had moved the leaves out of the way and poured some powder on the ground. The first time we saw it, it was in the shape of an X. Then we saw a small pile. We also saw three parallel lines. And an arrow. And a couple times at trail intersections we saw a circle. We saw these piles more than 10 times on our way back to the car and the whole time I was totally baffled. I was really confused as to why someone would purposefully do this and what the powder was and what the shapes represented. I mean, I guess they could have just been using the powder so that they could find their way back, but, why the shapes? And why that much powder? And why was it even necessary, it's not that easy to get lost? I wanted to run and try to track down the person that did it, but I didn't know which direction they were going. I mean, seriously, what was going on?

I never did figure it out...I guess I'll just call them the crop circles of the Northwest.