A baby step out of the box....

I don't know if this is wild or crazy enough to be considered "out of the box," but I'm going to go out on a limb. Yes, I'm going to enter a baking contest! During the Rose Festival here in Portland, they are going to have a contest for Oregon's State Cookie and I just whipped up a recipe that I think is quite good (I'm taking the cookies down for family to sample tomorrow). So, we'll see!

On another note, I accidentally tried my hand at back country hiking yesterday. Iwent with a group up to Falls Creek Falls in Washington (Green Turtle--lots of excellent letterboxing nooks and crannies there!). The hike description says that once you see the spectacular lower falls, you are supposed to hike back a bit and then go up an unmarked "scramble" to the upper falls trail. No problem...someone was even nice enough to put a marker on the scramble for us!

Or, so we thought....

The "scramble" quickly became overgrown and soon we were crawling over branches, under trunks and one person went down a small hill on her tush (okay, it was me!). And what did we find? Well, first we found lots of deer droppings, which was a sign that we were not going the right way. Then, at the end of the trail, we found the remnants of an illegal campsite. When I say "remnants," I mean scrunched vegetation and used toilet paper. Lovely!

After making our own trail down the hill--which included using tree limbs to rappell down a rather steep section--we made it back to the original trail...only to walk 20 feet and find the actual scramble we were supposed to take. But, as I pointed out...what would have been more memorable? Walking back on a well-groomed trail--part of which was along a road--or a real adventure in the "wilderness"? I am proud of myself for my answer to that question!