Not that the other years were bad, but we more than doubled our numbers for the trip. We went from 21 to 45 (with an extra grade 7 student...my son). This year saw Rachel Murray join us as a female chaperone (she worked with Granger at Vanier). There was so much snow that the bus had to park at the Trail of Two Forests and we had to hike into the Ape Caves. It was very hot and sunny so we did have a few sunburnt students after the caves...that would be from the hike, not from being underground in the caves. This trip was famous for us in that our Sunday morning departure was somewhat delayed due to a Red Bull crash. Every year we make sure our students have decent food offerings along the way and part of the experience of the trip is to go grocery shopping in the USA. For some, Safeway is an alternate reality in that the store is similar to what we have here but there are different products and often the price point is much lower for some items. Bourget and I often giggle at the conversations on the bus about the cost of items, the size of products and the "new" things bought (most often cereal, candy, or soda pop). One of our trippers bought a flat (24 cans) of Red Bull and consumed the entire amount in two and a half days. Getting students up for a 6:30 am Sunday departure from Kelso was a small challenge...this young man had "crashed" and was almost "unwakeable". Bourget and I had to retrieve the young man so that we could be on our way (think sunburn, dangerous amounts of energy drinks, the excitement of being away from home, and bam you crash). Lesson learned and we've counseled all of our trippers since regarding good food and drink choices.

There was just a bit of snow this year :)

This was the only year that the road to the Ape Caves was closed for our bus. The hike in and out made for a tired group of Mount Saint Helens trippers

Funny...I teach about Albedo (reflectivity) every year in my physical geography class and yet when it came to practice the theoretical knowledge went straight out the window

This was our first Ape Headquarters group shot

Notice how quickly students started putting clothes back on once we got into the caves? Every year we tell the group to layer up and bring clothes for cool and damp conditions in the caves.

Lower Ape Caves group shot

We contemplated taking the group through the trail of two forests but there was too much snow and the group was too tired

Head count time. It really is good that there is a bus ride from the caves back to Kelso; there's time to nap and recharge...for both teachers and students

The lava dome stopped venting this year and was "quiet" for another seven years

Looking east to Spirit Lake you can see the difference in snow amounts from this year to the previous one

Five years later this little one (my son) came on his grad version

The 2008 group shot at JRO

We had such a decent run of good weather in our first three years. 2006 and 2008 were warm days with crystal clear "blue bird" sunshine days and 2007 saw warm weather with just some patchy clouds. It's almost as if the mountain was spoiling us and 2009 was no exception to that pattern...in more ways than one