The Creature at Lake Whitney

 I found this story published by Carla Hinsey when I was looking for camping spots around Lake Whitney.  We'll probably go sometime this summer, maybe we'll see the creature.

"The following article is reprinted with permission by Carla Hinsey at  http://carlahinsey.com"

 Please check out Cala's blog, she has some wonderful stories and information.

The Creature at Lake Whitney

The first thing I would like to say is although this story might sound like fiction, it is a real account of an actual event that happened to my husband and I.  This story is probable not something that a lot of people will believe, but for me it doesn’t really matter.  Part of me decided to write this story any way, just for the benefit of myself.  Sometimes when you are wrapped up in something strange it is hard to maintain an objective point of view.

My husband and I had volunteered for a winter caretaker job on a really beautiful lake in Central Texas.  This part of Texas boasts a usually mild winter, with temperatures ranging from high fifties and sixties in the day to high thirties at night.  On occasions during the dead of winter a small ice or snowstorm might find its way into Central Texas.  Even if this is the case it doesn’t last for more than a day or two at best.
Lake Whitney is a beautiful lake and a large lake for Texas.  It is one that spans to counties with the center of the lake marking the county boundaries.  This part of Texas has hardwood trees mixed in with spruce and juniper.  There are lots of limestone cliffs that border the lake and surrounding area.  Lake Whitney is also home to many a deer and other wildlife such as armadillos, opossum, rabbits, raccoons, squirrels, skunks, snakes, fox, coyote, and various birds, which include hawks, owls, vultures, and we have seen some golden eagles, and not to mention a few sightings of cougars.

Whitney is a small rural community consisting mostly of Mom and Pop businesses; a basic lake community that thrives in peak seasons and struggles during the off times of the year.  During the summer months it is a hopping place filled with tourists seeking the sun and water.  There are many campgrounds providing tourists with accommodations and family recreation.  My husband and I have been on this lake during both off and on seasons.

It is during our first off season on the lake that my story takes place.

You see, at this point in our lives, my husband and I had been living in an RV (motor home) for a few years.  We traveled from place to place as our fancy took us.  We had met an older couple while traveling in Missouri and they had told us about being volunteers for the Army Corp of Engineers in Texas; Lake Whitney to be exact.  They gave us a 1-800 number to call, which we did and secured a winter caretaker position on the lake.  This particular caretaker job consisted of opening and closing a gate for a day use facility on the lake.  We were responsible for opening the gate at 6am and closing the gate at 10pm and keeping an eye on the park itself.  In exchange, we received our site and full RV hookups, and for full time RV’ers that was picture perfect. 

Full hookups mean water, electric, and sewer  connections.  The part that interested us was the complete seclusion on a beautiful lake with no one around except the bountiful wildlife.  Some people need hustle and bustle in their lives, my husband and I need quiet solitude.  This winter job was perfect for us.  We took the position October 1st and settled in quite nicely.  The weather was wonderful, lots of sun and 75 to 80 degree temperatures during the day and 50’s at night.  Winter comes late in Central Texas, although the light of the sun has changed and the shadows had become long and skinny, it was hard to see winter just around the corner.

Our site with the dog Nicki

On the day we arrived to our new winter home, which was named Walling Bend Day Use Area, we noticed a medium sized dog lying in the grass of our new campsite.  She watched as we backed into our site and from time to time wagged her tail, but gave no hint as to moving on.  After getting the RV set up and hooked up, we broke out the lawn chairs and folding table and set around our new site.  It provided us with a view of the lake in front of us with forest on three sides.  Who could ask for more?  We were at the end of the line, because in front of us was the lake and behind us was a small two-block community of lake houses.  Where we were was the end of the line of electricity and telephone service.  My husband acquired phone service for us so that he could have his Internet connection.  It didn’t matter to me either way, but I understood how he felt.

We settled into a routine pretty much from the beginning, my husband would open the gate in the morning at 6am and I would close the gate at 10pm.  He was an early riser and I like to stay up later with my campfire, so the arrangement worked out great for both of us.

The dog stayed with us and we decided to call her Nicki.  She loved the lake and took a daily swim no matter what the weather.  On sever weather nights with big storms and thunder and lightning we were able to coax Nicki into the motor-home to ride out the storm.  She always wanted out after the storm had passed; I feel she really loved being out doors and only came in on these miserable nights.  She did however love to ride to town with us to check our mail at the post office. 

A week or so after our arrival another dog showed up and she seemed really friendly with Nicki.  My husband tried to run her off at first, but after seeing how close her and Nicki were, we let her stay.  Later we found out she lived in the neighborhood behind us.  Her owners tried everything they could to keep her at home, but failed miserably at doing it so just let her run as she liked.

The dogs and I would take daily walks along the lake shores and up and down the park road.  Sometimes on mild nights we would take a late night walk along the lake.  I was always happy to have the dogs with me as sometimes at night your not sure what you might run into critter wise.  I felt that they kept me safe.

It seemed like it happened all at once, maybe it did but we hadn’t noticed before.  Vultures started showing up in large numbers hanging out in the trees all around us and then started to gather as far down as the lake as the days passed.  There were a few small camping sites down at one of the boat launches not far from our site.  The vultures were thick down there.  All the trees were usually covered with them as well as along the electrical lines and towers.  It was about that time my husband and I started to notice a lot of dead animals around.  A farmer about 1/2 mile from the park had lost a calf as well.

This is where my story starts to get strange.  One night while I went out at 10pm to close the gate something really weird happened.  The kind of thing that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up
. 

At the gate looking towards the RV

The dogs always went with me to shut the gate.  It was about 30 yards from the motor-home, surrounded by woods.  The dogs stood watch as I was busy shutting the big metal gate; it always made me feel better with them there.  On this particular night while walking back from shutting the gate, something happened just as I got back onto the patio around the motor-home.

In the woods not far away something was making a sound, moving around in the brush.  Instantly the dogs were at my side, one at each leg, pushing against me hard.  I use to tease them when we would hear something in the brush and they would take of like a shot and chase what ever it was away.  Not tonight though.  They both hugged my legs and started trembling, making very low growling sounds deep in their throats.

It gave me the real creeps.  I told the dogs, “Get it, get it!”  Neither moved.  I keep staring into the dark woods trying to see something as the dogs had never acted like this before.  I wanted to run inside the motor-home and lock the door, but I couldn’t.  Something made me stay there, I needed to see.
The rustling in the brush stopped, and finally a shape came out of the darkness.  There was a small rail fence about two feet high that ran around the outside edge of our site, separating the woods from us.

This thing, whatever it was, stayed just outside the glow of the huge vapor light that was out by the gate.  There was just enough light to see the rail, but not past it.  As I was staring at what ever it was, just trying to get a glimpse of it.  I still don’t know what it was as I couldn’t tell from what I saw.  I’ll try to describe it as best I can though.  It was about the size of a medium dog, skinny looking and darkish.  The head was dog shaped except for it was longer and thinner.  Erect ears but small I think.  Somehow, I still to this day don’t understand this, but it seemed to illuminate it’s self.  I know that doesn’t make sense, but that’s what I saw.

From the patio looking towards where I saw the creature 

After just a few seconds, it bolted.  It was there and then it wasn’t.  It leaped straight up and backwards into the trees behind it.  I could hear the limbs of the tree creak and with another sound of creaking limbs it was gone.  It was so very strange.  Both dogs took off like a shot to where the creature had been, but didn’t go past the rail into the woods.  

They stood there barking their heads off.  I hurried into the motor home and told my husband what had happened, but the look in his eyes told me he wasn’t so sure he believed me.  The next morning I tried to draw him a picture of what I had seen.  All he could say was he thought it looked like Jabba the Hut from the movie Star Wars.  The next morning I went outside to where the creature had been standing, but couldn’t really tell if anything was out of whack, although the tall grass was sort of trampled down in a couple of spots as if something had been standing there.

A few nights later, I was sitting in the motor home watching TV and my husband was at the dinette table on the Internet.
Suddenly something large jumped on the roof of the motor home making a loud thud as if it had dropped straight down from the tree above us.  The motor home began to jerk and rock violently from side to side almost knocking both of us into the floor.  After a few seconds my husband said he had also been kicked off the Internet. 

We both looked at each other wide-eyed, I grabbed the flashlight that we kept behind the chair I was sitting in and we rushed out side. We looked around but didn’t see anything.  My husband took the flash light and shined it around the yard and over the motor home but we still didn’t see anything.  We went around to the other side, where the sewer and water connections were, also where the cable and phone connections are.  The phone cord was yanked out of the phone plug on the side of the motor home and strung out across the yard.  

My husband told me to go get one of the guns.  I hurried inside and returned with my husbands 9mm.  I was really spooked and although my husband didn’t show it I could tell he was a little anxious.  We examined the phone cord and found that it had indeed been ripped out of the box, and the other end had literally been pulled apart.  One end of the chord was gone and we couldn’t see it anywhere.  The weird thing about the chord is the way it had been stretched apart with the plastic insulation and copper wires exposed.  My husband tried to duplicate the strength it took to do that with a phone chord but he couldn’t stretch it apart like this one had been.

                     Claw prints around MH

The next morning we looked around outside and found tracks all over by the RV hookups.  They were really strange looking.  They were about the size around of a softball.  Each had three claw/toe marks in front and two straight down hole mark in the back; no pad marks.  I’ve never seen anything that looked like that before.  In the first photo there are three prints.  One in the top left, a smudged one below and to the right, then at the bottom center.  Next to the bottom center is one of the dog’s prints. The second photo is a close up of one of the top left print.

Again, a few nights later, we were watching TV and my husband decided to go outside for some fresh air.  The motor home was parked under several large old trees; beautiful giants.  He wasn’t outside very long when he hollered at me to bring the flash light; something was in the tree above the rear of RV.  I grabbed the flashlight and hurried outside.

We heard something stirring in the trees above us and my husband shined the light up into the darkness.  Far above us, something sat high on one of the limbs.  It was a dark figure and appeared to be crouched over looking at us.  Just as the light hit it, it sprang off the branch and landed on the ground just in front of us.  Then it leaped up in the air again and took off to a tree at the edge of the site.  It happened so fast we couldn’t get a good beam on it with the flashlight. 

In a jump of a bout 50 feet it made it to a stand of huge old cedar trees behind the motor home.  My husband ran after it with the flashlight in hand.  I was right behind him.  Apparently, after jumping to the trees it jumped again and went up one of them all the while growling and making flapping sounds.  My husband was standing underneath the tree where it went up.  He was shinning the flashlight up there.  We couldn’t see anything, but what where heard gave me chills all through my body.  Whatever it was, it was flapping, growling, and snarling as it went up the tree.  This thing was really either scared or pissed off.

You could hear branches snapping and cracking as this creature made its way to the top;  large branches were falling to the ground around us.  We don’t know for sure what happened next, but we heard massive wings flapping and the creature was gone.

The tree that the creature went up, and branches laying on the ground.

Both of us didn’t know what to think about all of this that had been going.  One thing I find strange, except for that first encounter with the creature, the dogs were always mysteriously gone when the creature showed up.  I think they were afraid of it and they would leave when it came around.  During the rest of the time we were there, things cooled off and that was the last big event we had with the creature.   One time it did pull out our metal awning supports that were buried in the ground and carried off the rope attached to them.  More tracks that day, as well


I don’t have a clue as to what happened to us that season at the lake.  I can’t say what it was that we saw and heard, all I can say is I have never seen anything like it before.  I don’t know that I want too either.  If you ever make it down to Lake Whitney and happen to stay at Walling Bend Park, I wouldn’t go wandering around late at night by yourself.  That’s all I have to say about this.

"The following article is reprinted with permission by Carla Hinsey at  http://carlahinsey.com"

South Dakota

Here's a slide show of some of the things we saw in South Dakota and Wyoming.  I hope you enjoy it.



We've got a case of "Hitch Itch" and need to drag our trailer down the road soon to scratch that itch.

"Happy Trails" 

Devils Tower

It was another great day in South Dakota and we were off to find adventure along the road to Devils Tower.  We headed up highway 385 through the Black Hills.  Normally it would take about an hour to get to Deadwood, but we were in no hurry and we were enjoying the sights.  When we arrived in Deadwood, it looked like a city that was frozen in time.  The city has a great western feel as soon as you get there.

We decided to take a look through town and get a bite to eat at one of the saloons.  Before we got into the saloon, there was a gunfight on the street, which was cool.  When we got into the saloon, the employees were dressed in period costumes also.  The saloon we happened to be in, was Saloon No. 10, where Wild Bill Hickok played cards.
 
Wild Bill was having a run of bad luck that day and was forced to borrow a poker stake from the bartender. That run of bad luck worsened when an ex-buffalo hunter called John (“Broken Nose Jack”) McCall walked in unnoticed. Jack McCall walked to within a few feet of Wild Bill and then suddenly drew a pistol and shouted, “Take that!” before firing.

The bullet hit Hickok in the back of the head, killing him instantly. The bullet emerged through Wild Bill’s right cheek striking Captain Massie in the left wrist. Legend has it that Hickok had lost his stake and had just borrowed $50 from the house to continue playing. When shot, he was holding a pair of aces and a pair of eights, all black. The fifth card is debated, or, as some say, had been discarded and its replacement had not 

yet been dealt.

It was time for us to hit the road again.  Deadwood is a place I would like to see again someday.  We headed toward Devils Tower on I90 West and before you knew it we were crossing into Wyoming.  The ride from the border to Sundance will take you about 25 minutes.


When you get to Sundance you need to be looking for Hwy. 14 because you'll be heading up that road to the Tower.  It'll take you about 45 minutes to get up there.  Once there, they have a information office, vending machines and restrooms.


After we found as much adventure as we were going to we headed out.  We stopped at a place on the road up to Tower that had all kinds of cool things.  We packed up our purchases and headed back to camp.  Russ and David took I90 to 16, which brought them back to camp.


Cherrie and I on the other hand couldn't go with the flow, so we took Hwy 585 out of Sundance.  It was well worth it because it took us through some beautiful parts of the forest.  Russ and David may have beat us back to camp but we had enjoyed our way much better.

Thus ends another day on the trail to adventure.

 
"Happy Trails"

Grand Canyon Skywalk

I came across "The Grand Canyon Skywalk" awhile back and thought it would be something Cherrie and I would like to see.    The prices are pretty steep and you can't bring cameras on the walkway.  All personal belongings have to be put in a locker.  I still think it would be nice to see.

What are your ticket prices?
There are two fees you will encounter when visiting the Skywalk. Visitors will be required to purchase an entry fee into Grand Canyon West and if visitors choose to experience the Skywalk, an additional fee will be required:

• Skywalk Admission fee (Admission onto the Skywalk): Admission onto the Skywalk is $29.95 per person (Taxes apply)
• Grand Canyon West "Legacy", (Entrance fee to Grand Canyon West): The adult rate for the Legacy Pass is $40.95 per person. This gives you access to any of the points of interest listed below as well as a hop-on / hop-off shuttle that travels to each location daily every 10-15 minutes.

"Happy Trails"

Mt Rushmore

Early on July 4th we drove through the "Black Hills" on the way to Mt Rushmore.  The views were spectacular.  We arrived at Mt Rushmore early in the afternoon and staked our claim to our area that we would watch the performance and fireworks from.  As would be expected there were a lot of people but not as bad as I thought it would be.

They were having plumbing problems so all the restrooms were closed.  They had brought in a bunch of Porta-Potties and lined them up in the parking lot.  The lines to use the toilet was long and you could expect to wait over an hour to use them.  They were being used so much the pumper truck had to regularly pump them out.

You could purchase food and drinks at the restaurants that are there.  There's places to purchase gifts and souvenirs, we had purchased a blanket to sit on the ground.  There was plenty to see and learn while there.

Later in the afternoon the was a fly over of the  F-117 Nighthawk and the B-2 Bomber, that was a spectacular sight.  Lee Greenwoodwas one of the performers and he had sung "God Bless the USA".

 The fireworks were "great".  We all enjoyed the day and what we had seen and learned.  After the fireworks it was time to head back to camp.  We all climbed into Russ' SUV and headed back to camp.  When we got back to camp we discussed the day at Mount Rushmore and where we were tomorrow in search of another adventure.

"Happy Trails" 

Journey To South Dakota

A few years ago we took a vacation to the Black Hills, first trip with our shiny new truck and 5th wheel.  We were coming from Wisconsin, taking a family vacation in the Black Hills and continuing to Texas where we had purchased a home.  After the vacation I flew back to Wisconsin to load up our stuff and drag it down to Texas. 

We planned on staying in Sioux Falls, South Dakota for two nights to meet my son and brother in-law who were leaving later from Wisconsin and to see some of the sights in the area.  We all went to "Falls Park" which was a nice place to see.  Cherrie and I drove to Watertown South Dakota to visit Redlin Art Center since we both enjoy his work. 

"Falls Park"

                    

"Redlin Art Center"

We left Sioux Falls on a cold and rainy Monday morning headed toward the Black Hills. Heading down I90 we exited and took the 240 loop through the Badlands.  When we first stopped after going through the gate it was overcast and colder than a "well diggers ass", and this was July!  We spent some time exploring the sites along the loop on our way to Wall, South Dakota.






We stopped for lunch at the famous Wall Drug Store, the food and atmosphere was great.  After lunch we did some shopping, took pictures and enjoyed the attractions.  We crawled back in the truck and headed toward Rapid City

We arrived at the Rafter J Bar Ranch in Hill City, South Dakota on Monday afternoon.  After we set up we noticed some of the other RV's and cars looked like someone took a baseball bat to them, really bad shape.  We talked to some people and they told us there was a bad hail storm the day before and a lot of the cars and RV's were total losses, I'm glad we didn't push it or we would have arrived Saturday and we would of been one of those unfortunate campers.

Remember this was a vacation, 50 things to do in five days, no relaxing, go, go, go.  We didn't spent much time at camp because we were trying to fit in as much as possible.  I'll write more later about our adventures in South Dakota.

"The following are for my Grand kids"

"Happy Trails"

"Ole Red" Retires

Friday night Cherrie convinced me to buy a new lawnmower since "Ole Red" is feeling a little sick.  I've had this mower since David was born and my father had it before me.  He bought this mower new in 1977 and I probably bought it from him about four years later, which makes it 33 years old.


I've used it all those years with very little trouble.  Except now it has a stripped head bolt and I think it's time to give it a rest, when I get bored I'll probably fix it.  I'm probably going to write to Toro and tell them the story.


Well "Ole Red" was replace by a brand new shiny "Red", with a 7 HP engine.  If this mower lasts 33 years...well I'd be a little older.  David would be near retirement, Chloe would be 41, Austin would be 37 and Jordan a young 35 years old.  "Man-o-man!"

Anniversary Surprise

"Happy Trails"

Just a Little Further

It was a beautiful summer evening and we had just finished another great dinner.  We were on another camping adventure at "Firefly Lake Campground" in the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest.

Cherrie and I decided to go for a bike ride.  We were only going for a short ride, until we wondered if the trail went around the lake.  Lets see! How long could it take to bike around the lake?  Sooooo we started out on our adventure to bike around the lake and be back at camp before the sun went down, uh huh.

At first it was a normal mountain biking ride, occasionally passing people along the way. Then we noticed we weren't seeing any other people and the sounds of the campground had disappeared and we were gone longer than we wanted.  We could still see the lake and we were on the opposite side from where we had started, no problem, just keep following the trail, uh huh.  We came upon some signs in the woods for snowmobilers that pointed in one direction 8 miles and in the other direction 5 miles.

We decided to stick with our trail.  The trail started to become very ugly, fast, so we had to walk our bikes and push them through slippery mud, often along a steep slope.  It was getting dark in the forest and we were getting a little concerned, okay maybe more than a little.  Will we have to spend the night in this muddy miserable place?

The mosquitoes were thick and buzzing all around, Cherrie was having trouble seeing and getting through the mud. The mosquitoes were getting to her and she could hardly see anything because she left her glasses at camp, it was only going to be a short ride, "right".  I told her if I spread mud all over her the mosquitoes wouldn't bite her.  She said #%$#, to that, so she continued to get bit up.  We were getting bit up pretty bad and what made it worse, we had no water.  This sure was turning into a full blown adventure.  Cherrie wasn't as enthusiastic as when we had started, especially when I wanted to smear mud all over her.  Maybe she thought we would come upon a bear or worse.  I don't know what would be worse but give us enough time and we'll find it.

We finally came to an area that wasn't as dense with trees and the trail improved so we could hop on our bikes and ride again.  We could hear kids and see campfires in the distance from neighboring campgrounds.  There was very little light by now, but we pushed on.

We could hear an occasional car on a highway in front of us and eventually we made it to that highway.  Well now what?  We were on this highway but didn't know what highway and there was nothing around.  Do we go this way or that way?  We thought about it and made a decision to go north, a ways down the road we came upon a sign that said "CO HWY M".  Now we knew where we were, but we didn't know if we were going in the right direction.  Our sense of direction was messed up from being in the forest for so long.

We continued down the highway hoping to see a familiar landmark soon.  Finally we did, it was a sign for "CO HWY N" which is the road our campground is off of.  We turned onto "HWY N" and continued our adventure down the moon lit road and turned into the campground to coast into camp 5 hours later, where Russ and David were waiting impatiently. 

Cherrie and I were tired and thirsty.  David and Russ were just getting ready to go to the ranger station to report us missing because it was now 11:00 and we've been gone since 6:00.  We got the lecture from both of them as Cherrie gulped her water and I sipped my cold beer wondering what the mud adventure would of been like.




It sure would have made it a lot easier if we had a cell phone, or maybe just turned around and went back.  Cherrie and I never go anywhere without our water.  If we're hiking we take our Camelbak and other things we may need.  We're a little more prepared for adventure these days then back then.

This is the route we took around the lake, "the long way".


View Firefly Lake in a larger map