When Bourget approached me in 2005 about taking a group of Geography and Geology students from Vanier to Mount Saint Helens I jumped at the idea. He had done this trip for seven years when he worked at New West Secondary and we certainly had enough students in our two classes to make it fly...problem was that we had a lot of things conflicting with it (Rugby provincials, May long weekend "extra curricular" plans, prep for Graduation ceremonies, community soccer trips) and the idea was new. So we went with 20 students (and one extra recently graduated student). Our first year saw us travel in one day from Vanier to Kelso, Washington (leaving at 9 am and arriving near midnight); visiting both the Ape Caves on the south side (in the morning) and the Johnston Ridge Observatory on the north side (in the afternoon) on one day; and then coming back from Kelso to Vanier on the last day. We quickly discovered that we pushed the students a little too much with the bus ride and had to make adjustments on our itinerary. Nonetheless it was a great adventure and the start of something big at Vanier. In that group below you'll find two current teachers and some incredibly talented human beings. This group paved the way for bigger things to come.

A group shot at the end of the lower Ape Caves

Climbing the Meatball in the lower Ape Caves

Crawling along in the upper Ape Caves

Our first real view on State Route 504

Back when Young had lots of colour in his hair

A quick respite from the bus ride

It was cool to see the dome steaming

Our first group of Saint Helens adventurers

The mountain did not disappoint

A little pixelated but a pretty happy Bourget

We thought the weather would always co-operate