My favourite camping trip would have to be two summers ago
when my parents, best friend and I packed up our trailer and traveled to Oregon
where we spent 25 days camping along the coast. Along the way we stopped at
many tourists’ destinations such as the Sea Lions Cave, Harris Beach, Crater
Lake and the Oregon Caves. At night we found ourselves alongside the campfire
sharing laughs and s’mores and enjoying each other’s company. My favourite
memory during this trip would have to be going sandboarding. One part of Oregon
is covered in sand dunes and the locals started the sport of sandboarding. Essentially
sandboarding is like snowboarding except it is on sand, you don’t wear boots and
after each run you have to wax your board otherwise you won’t slide down the
hill. The first few runs I was hesitant as it took a lot of balance and I often
took small tumbles but I eventually got the hang of it and was flying down the bunny
hill in no time. Together, my friend Mackenzie and I spent nearly two hours
climbing up the hill and riding back down. Feeling gutsy we decided to try the
biggest hill. The first run we carefully made our way down the hill with success.
Feeling even more confident I was determined to conquer the biggest hill at
full speed. The first half of the run was successful and then I met my match
when I hit a hidden rock in the sand. The board got caught up on the rock and
my body proceeded to continue full speed and I somersaulted twice before
landing head and face first deep in the sand. Wipe out. I remember thinking that
since I was in the sand I may as well build a sand castle and then the next
thing I knew there were 4 strangers digging me out of the sand and making sure
I was okay and I could see my mom and friend barreling down the hill behind
them. After I was brushed off, had spit out the mouth full of sand that had
accumulated in my mouth and had gotten reoriented, me and all the other sand
boarders on the hill couldn't help but fall over laughing at my graceful
wipe out. Fortunately I walked away with only a little sand burn a minor
headache and few pockets full of sand. Even though at the time my wipe out was
very scary, it has left me with a lasting memory that always makes me giggle.
