A morning walk along British Columbia’s Okanagan Rail Trail turned into an unexpected encounter for visitor Alison Tinck.
While walking on the trail in Coldstream Tuesday morning, Tinck noticed something unusual in Kalamalka Lake around 9:30 AM at the four-kilometer marker. She quickly grabbed her camera.
“I don’t know what happened, it just sort of came into my realization that there was something out there,” Tinck told Castanet. “And so I opened up my camera and I started filming it, and it went for about 42 seconds and then it disappeared.”
Tinck reported seeing three bumps and a head moving diagonally across the water. The footage shows ripples and what appears to be a dark shape cutting through the lake’s surface.
Could this be evidence of an undiscovered creature lurking beneath British Columbia’s waters?
Probably not.
The Boat Wake Explanation
While the footage shows some sort of black shape moving across the lake, it’s very difficult to determine exactly what it could have been. The most likely culprit? A boat wake from a vessel that had already passed.
Boat wakes are a common explanation for lake monster sightings, with some observers reporting V-shaped patterns similar to what Tinck filmed. When a boat travels across water, it creates a series of waves that can persist long after the vessel has moved out of sight. These waves can create the illusion of something large moving beneath the surface, complete with “humps” and apparent forward motion.
The timing supports this theory. Kalamalka Lake is a popular recreational area, and Tinck’s sighting occurred at 9:30 AM on a Tuesday morning—prime time for early boaters and fishermen. A passing watercraft could have created the disturbance minutes before Tinck noticed the ripples, with the wake continuing to move across the lake’s surface.
The “three bumps and a head” Tinck described align perfectly with how boat wakes appear when viewed from shore. Multiple waves in succession can create the appearance of humps, while debris or foam at the leading edge might resemble a head.
The Ogopogo Connection
Tinck mentioned she’s heard about sightings around this time, but never in Kalamalka Lake, noting, “I don’t think it would manage to get its way from Okanagan Lake into Kal Lake.” She was referencing Ogopogo, the famous lake monster legend associated with nearby Okanagan Lake.
According to skeptical researchers, contemporary Ogopogo sightings were most likely misidentifications of water fowl, otter, or beaver, with otters often swimming in a row creating motion that can be mistaken for one continuous serpent.
While there have been sightings in Kalamalka Lake, it is not nearly as well known for its monster legend as Okanagan Lake or Scotland’s Loch Ness.
Pattern Recognition and Perception
Lake monster sightings often follow a familiar pattern. The scientific community explains alleged lake monster sightings as hoaxes, wishful thinking, and the misidentification of mundane objects.
Human brains are wired to recognize patterns, even when none exist. When we see unusual ripples on water, our minds attempt to make sense of the visual information by creating familiar shapes—like a creature swimming. This phenomenon, called pareidolia, explains why so many people across different lakes report remarkably similar “monsters.”
The 42-second duration of Tinck’s footage also fits the boat wake theory. Witnesses have reported wakes zigzagging, diving, and reappearing—behavior that matches how boat wakes move across varying water currents and depths.
Without additional context—such as verification that no boats were in the area, or footage showing the object behaving in ways inconsistent with water displacement—the simplest explanation remains the most likely.
A boat passed. Its wake continued. Tinck filmed the ripples.
Sometimes the mysterious has a mundane explanation hiding just beneath the surface.
