After losing three years to travel restrictions connected to the pandemic, Mr. Young and Mr. Arsenault successfully brought back the Mount Saint Helens trip to G.P. Vanier, our Fifteenth year! Losing three years really meant re-starting this adventure all over again, as the momentum we had been building vanished pretty quickly. We knew it would be a challenge to build back the numbers of students, but really this was our second reboot after Mr. Bourget retired, so it became version 3.0 if you will. This year we chose to be nimble and light and took our own school district busses as opposed to a coach bus. This allowed us the opportunity to make quick decisions, but it did mean that the chaperons had to drive...the first time we'd ever done that. To help, our VP, Mr. McKillican drove one bus, while Young drove the other. We also had the Marvellous Ms. Mazey join us as well. We chose to go back to the Black Ball ferry (Victoria to Port Angeles, Wa) and take the 101 down to Olympia, thus avoiding the snarl of I-5/I-405 traffic through the greater Seattle region. It really is a much more leisurely and picturesque drive as well. Twenty-four students made the journey this year

There were a few logistical issues to overcome, including the ESTA and Visa Waiver Program for our International students (no fruit issues this year 😏), however those paled in comparison to a curveball thrown at us in the last minute. Normally we head down to Olympia on the first day and then days two and three are split between the north and the south side of Mount Saint Helens, coming home on day four. On the weekend before we made our way down to the United States (specifically Sunday, May 14th, 2023) a landslide hit State Route 504 (Spirit Lake Memorial Highway) and washed out a 200 foot section of road at milepost 49, cutting off access to the Johnston Ridge Observatory. This meant that we could no longer take the students to the north side of the volcano...you know the place with speactacular views of the pumice plain and the blast zone. So when Mr. A. and Young found out about this, the road closure information came out on Tuesday the 16th (we were leaving on Thursday the 18th) a few "choice words" were shared. We had to contemplete cancelling the trip; however this realy wasn't an option for us, if we wanted a fresh start to reboot the expedition/field study. After a frantic brainstorming session, we made a proposal to Mr. McKillican that he thought was a fantastic idea. We'd keep the south side of Mount Saint Helens, with the Ape Caves, but we'd add a visit to Mount Rainier for our other day. This time, the students got a 2 for 1 deal...visiting BOTH Mount Rainier and Mount Saint Helens...Sweet! As you will find below, this was an absolutely fantastic idea.

After making our way to Olympia, for night one, we made our way to Mount Rainier through Yelm, Eatonville, Ashford and Longmire (Highways 510/702/7/706). We needed a bathroom and stretch break in Yelm, which turned out to be a lot of fun.

Mount Saint Helens is fantastic, but so is Mount Rainier. We do a Problem Based Learning / practical study of the town of Orting in my Physical Geography class. Orting sits in the shadow of Mount Rainier, so for the students to actually see the volcano they write a report on is a pretty fantastic opportunity for them. We made our way to the Henry M. Jackson Memorial Visitor Center in Paradise and had the students hike through the snow. We went up the Skyline Trail to Panorama Point (6800') in full on snow. It was spectacular.

After our time on Mount Rainier we had a tired and hungry group. After stopping for lunch (and Twinkies) along the Nisqually River, we made our way back to Elbe and then headed south along Highway 7 to Morton and on Highway 12, through Mossyrock to Interstate 5 and down to Kelso for the night. Our pilgrimage to Fiesta Bonita made the chaperons happy and of course Target was a target for the students. As you'll see below, there were many Hawaiian short sleeved shirts that made their way back across the border. Saturday, however, saw us make our way south to State Route 503 and up to Cougar, Washington, so that we could go to the Ape Caves. It was SUPER SLAMMING busy at the Ape Caves, most likely because the north side (Johnston Ridge) was inaccessible and it was the opening Spring weekend for the caves. Almost everyone wanted to do the upper caves and Ms. Mazey rocked it out with Mr. McKillican and Mr. Young

At the very bottom of the Ape Caves there's a squeezy little path. You need to crawl on your belly which leads to a small cavern that you can stand up in. This is a very popular adventure for some who can handle the narrow space

There's also a little bench that you can climb on top of. Mr. A. always becomes the ladder to climb up on to this feature

After the Upper Caves, we take the group to the Trail of Two Forests with lava casts of trees and nightmares of Riley

We were able to get a pretty fantastic view of Mount Saint Helen's south face before heading back north for the night

And both Mr. A and Mr. Young were happy to join the "Happy Shirt Gang"

And finally, coming back through Tsawwassen there were further adventures with Playmobile and henna