Dale Hanchar wasn’t searching for a mythological beast when he set sail on Okanagan Lake this weekend.
Now, days later, he’s toying with the idea he may have found one.
He and his wife Colleen along with their friend Myrna Germaine Brown were enjoying an unseasonably warm day on the lake Saturday when they caught sight of something in the water they couldn’t explain away.
“As a boater, I was just looking, (to see) is this something dangerous that needs to be marked so somebody doesn’t run into it, like a dead head or something like that,” Hanchar said.
“We went on by and I got thinking about it, and I said to Myrna and my wife ‘that didn’t look right, we’ve got to go look at that again’,” he said.
He told Colleen to get her camera ready and turned the boat around.
They managed to get the sailboat within 10 feet of the object and took a photo.
“We were all puzzled as to what could that possibly be,” he said.
“You know, we kind of eliminated what it wasn’t in our heads, and we talked about it a little bit and then we just kept on going.”
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At the time, through a small picture on a phone, and even looking directly at it from the boat, they didn’t quite get a good idea of what was there until they went home and zoomed in. Then they were really puzzled.
“For one thing, the two nodular things are sticking up… whatever they are, those that are about three feet apart,” he said.
“And I’ve done some research since we took this picture and it’s not a plant. It’s not kelp because this is a lake it’s not the ocean. It’s not a sturgeon.
It’s not a dead deer upside down,” he said.
“You can eliminate all these things but the next question is, what is it?”
He wants to know if anybody else saw it, if it washed up on shore somewhere, or could it have been a wayward lawn decoration.
“If it’s totally disappeared, and nobody knows what it is, then what is that? We don’t know?” he said.
Then there’s the other thing. Could it be the legendary lake beast Ogopogo, which is also known by its indigenous name Nx̌aʔx̌ʔitkʷ (NN-Ha-Ha-Teek).
As Germaine Brown pointed out, “nobody has seen it” before, so who’s to say that it isn’t just that?
Adam Benedict, whose website is described as an online cryptozoological, midwest folklore, and historic Fortean newspaper reference site, had a moment of hesitation when he opened up the photo for the first time.
“What caught my attention was the two protruding objects at the surface. But when I bring it onto a larger screen and zoom in, I see a water bird of some sort in the process of a dive either just right below the surface or in the process of coming up,” he said.
“The two protruding objects on the back would of course be its legs in some way, whether they’re bent or they’re kicking, but you can clearly see just below the surface an eye as well as its beak right at the top of the water line.”
When it comes to mythology, he explained deeply entrenched stories are hard to shake.
“One thing, you know, whenever you’re dealing with a lake that has a history or reputation of having something in it your mind is always going to go to that thing first,” he said.
“Your mind is instantly going to go to ‘I’m seeing the monster. I’m seeing the creature.’”
If a person was boating on a lake that wasn’t associated with a myth, however, it may not shake out the same way, he added.
That doesn’t help Hanchar who wants to know, did anyone else see this strange occurrence beneath the waves on Okanagan Lake?
If so, could it be you-know-who?
Regardless, the photo continues to keep the legend of the mysterious lake monster alive and well.
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