Yakutat's Beauty

The William G. Brooks 2009 Reunion

This is the first ever William G Brooks family reunion and it was a success! We met in Las Vegas, NV. and stayed at a secret location. I can't remember the name :) We met up with My Dad and Step Mom, Sisters: Anne, her 2 kids Dylan and Dakota, Becky, Jackie and her 3 kids Savanah, Zane & Ruger. My brother Bill, his wife Brandi, and their 3 kids Daven, Reed and Emerson. My 2 step brothers Jimmy & Matt, his son Avery. My two step sisters Tammy, with her 4 kids and Allison. Myself with my 6 kids, Elyse, Amanda, Neisha, Jocelyn, Saije and Trace. we had a complete football team staying in 2 suites with 3 beds and a hide-a-bed. We swam, tie-dye shirts, ate fresh Salmon, Halibut and Octopus from Yakutat, Ak. and visited until the wee hours of the morning! It was so much fun and much needed. WE haven't all been together since 1990. After our Vegas visit we headed to hang with my awesome Grandmother Maxine! She is getting up there in her years and still can remember all the good times we had growing up. I miss and love you all, Thank you for a great time!

Hiking Russell Fiord

The girls and I met up with Carol and her girls and hiked to the one only, Russell Fiord. The path was covered in a bright green carpet which lead us to an amazing bay that had been under a glacier for many years. The bare white pines shows the line of where it once was. The White Sock mosquitoes were ridiculous! It was so good to be off the water and back on the trail. We look forward to hiking it again, and again and again!

Summer, Summer, Suumer (The Cars)

I got a job with Fish and Game sampling Salmon, Rock Fish and Halibut. I got to know the boat Captains and invented a summer job for the girls. Grubbies Boat detailing. Elyse began with the Sea Raven, then on to the Glacier Bear. Amanda and Joce got in on it and then they got another client, the Sea Wolf, with off and on jobs with the Happy Hookers. We began our own little business. I am hoping to form it into an actually company in the summer to employ tha girls. We will see. It was nice geting to work down and the dock and see the girls everyday. Lars and Trace would even come down, take the skiff out and bring in some fish for me to measure! Thanks Muck!

We're Goin' on a picnic!

We loaded up the car with the fixin's for dutch oven and instruments and headed to Coast Guard Point for a picnic. Lou brought her awesome ukulele and Dad brought his guitar. We sat around listening to music and ate some delicious potatoes. Saije slept all curled up on the beach and Elyse made sure we had plenty of memories caught on camera.

Our camping trip to Square Bay, Yakutat, AK.

Well, we had everything planned out. Get all our gear loaded into one skiff and everyone else in the other. We packed as if we were going to start living in the unknown, but we were only planning on camping for 3 days. We arrived early afternoon and got camp set up. Our camp consisted of 4 insane adults, 12 wired children and 1 hungry dog. We had beautiful weather, went fishing, hiking and walking tide pools. I lead a group around the west end of Kantak and looped around until we were on the south side of the island and then cut strait through to the tidal flats and back to camp. Lars took a group out fishing for Halibut and Carol took a group to the tidal pools. Everyone came back with some good souvenirs and stories. Lars got the fire started to dry off those that went for a swim in the sub zero water (on purpose) yes, Trace was one of them. I got a group of girls to start the cutting of potatoes and we began to cook my famous "dutch oven potatoes". We roasted hotdogs and smores then crawled into our bags for an uneasy night of sleep. Every sound that the dog made, made my eyes pop open and prepare myself for getting eatin' by a bear. So not alot of sleep the first night! The next morning we headed into the Harbot to grab Lou and Joce of the airplane. We got back in the boat and headed back to camp. How I wish that the weather we had the day before stayed with us. We played in the rain, we made fresh blueberry cobbler in the rain, and we ate in the rain, and yes we pretty much slept in the rain. The wind came up eary morning and the tide was out, which left the boat in the damn sand. Carol woke everyone up, not even I was going to get up until I saw what position we were in. So we all heaved and hooed until the boat was in the water. Then we all began loading are WET gear into the boat. We ended up doing a few trips because of our not so neatly packed gear took up too much room. But in the end I was glad that I finally got to go camping again, it has been 4 long years since my awesome campout that my family sent me off to Alaska with, I love and miss you all!

Fishing the Situk on a jet boat

Yea, today Lars, Trace and I got aboard a flat bottom, jet propelled river boat. It was so fast and scary that I almost wanted a seat belt! Trace and his classmate Emma road in the front as if it were a carnival ride. Her grandfather Bob, slid us up the Situk river with his eyes closed. We drove right over log jams and got into the most amazing places to fish. The guys were catching fish like crazy but not landing them. I was struggling with the technique of fly fishing without an indicator, but caught on and landed my first Sockeye, and then my second, and then my third. I limited out so I sat back and enjoyed watching the Lars and Muck bring in their limits. Nothing quite like watching a salmon jump 3 ft out of the water!