By Tim Binnall
A family vacationing in British Columbia spotted and subsequently filmed what appeared to be a curious creature that could be a legendary lake monster known as Shuswaggi. The remarkable sighting reportedly occurred this past Monday in the community of Eagle Bay, where brothers Jake and Kenton McRae along with their respective families had gathered together at a home on the shore of Shuswap Lake. What began as a mundane afternoon due to inclement weather turned into a memory to last a lifetime when they noticed something unusual out on the water. Initial witness Kenton recalled seeing a sizeable creature, which he likened to a whale, briefly surface and then submerge, which caused "these massive ripples" to radiate from the spot out on the lake.
Alerting the family to what he had just seen, they began observing the area as the mysterious creature moved closer to shore with considerable speed. The weirdness out on the water prompted Kenton to wonder what they were watching and a search online led him to discovering that Shuswap Lake is said to be the home of a lake monster, dubbed Shuswaggi. The veritable cousin of Canada's famed Ogopogo, sightings of the mysterious creature date back to the beginning of the 20th century with its most recent high profile appearance being in 2019. Disappointed that they had missed filming Kenton's first glimpse of the oddity, the family kept their cell phones trained on the area and were soon rewarded when the creature seemingly surfaced yet again.
As seen in the video above, the McRaes were amazed to see a series of humps emerge from the water. While Jake conceded that their footage largely shows "little mysterious-looking grey blobs," from their on-site perspective, he likened the bumps to dolphins traveling together, but in this instance the protrusions were "as if a circle was spinning in the water, one hump after another, in a perfect line." He also noted that they could clearly see "a greyish undertone of something moving" in the lake wherein "it almost looked like there was some churning going on in the middle." When they saw a motor boat in the area later that day, they were able to compare the wake that it created and indicated that it paled in comparison to the ripples created by the creature.
The brothers say that the sighting was particularly amusing to them as, on their way to the lake house, they discussed what they would do if they saw Bigfoot while on vacation and agreed that they would not tell anyone unless they could provide some kind of proof of the encounter. "So it's hilarious this happened," Jake said, "and I’m so glad I got it on film." As for what they might have seen on Monday, he was skeptical of the classic Nessie concept of a remnant dinosaur living in the lake, but did opine that "there are creatures that we don't know about" which are waiting to be discovered and perhaps Shuswaggi is one of them. What do you think the McRaes saw at Shuswap Lake earlier this week? Weigh in with your thoughts at the C2C Facebook page.