The Beach at Rancho Bernardo?
Posted by Nancy Canfield | Visited 725 times, 1 so far today | Currently 1 Comment »
Walking around Lake Hodges in Rancho Bernardo, hugging the water line, you’ll come to patches of beach sand. One spot in particular really is a beach: complete with sand, sea shells, even a sort of sea grass. Sea gulls fly overhead, boats cruise by, tiny waves lap the shore. Lake Hodges was created as a reservoir in 1918, after the dam was excavated in 1916, to provide water to Rancho Santa Fe.
Until the 1980’s, it was commonplace to find black, freshwater mussels along the shore. In fact, people waded out to fill containers with them. The practice ceased after repeated warnings that the mussels were unsafe to eat, and carried a bacteria. That was back when cows still grazed on the east side of the lake.
Lake Hodges is now part of the San Dieguito River Park. Signs posted along the walking trails tell of the Kumeyaay Indians, and their predecessors, the San Dieguitos, who made their homes there as far back as 7,000 years ago. Grinding stones and Petra glyphs are frequently identified along the way. Part of the Lake’s history is the persistent rumor that a Loch Ness-type monster resides in here, and not just by local Indians who claimed to have seen him. Scoffers thought theirs was superstition aimed at ceasing development.
In 1930 researchers from Scripps Institute, persuaded to investigate, found no conclusive evidence of any sort of creature in the lake, although one assistant did report seeing a “…lizard-like…” head “…protruding from the surface…” This prompted an internal memo at Scripps suggesting more research was needed.
In 1931, a boat docked on a small pier was destroyed. Police investigating found no footprints near the sandy beach entrance to the pier, but noted in their report that there appeared to have been “…great turmoil under the water along the base of the pier, from a boat or underwater vessel…or perhaps a large creature.”
In 1932, Scripps sent divers and baited a cage with a seal lion, which disappeared, and caught nothing. That practice sent up cries of cruelty from the public, which put an end to the exploration for the time being. One astounding photo emerged from one of the buoy cameras showing a shape like that of a sea creature. Subsequent attempts to capture the creature resulted in smashed cameras and buoys, and the project was finally canceled.
Diversion to needs of WW II put an end to that exploration until the sixties when a two-family picnic outing turned frightening. A large creature, nicknamed Hodgee, surfaced about fifty yards offshore. In the 1970’s SDSU Professor Gary Peterson and California Division of Mines and Geology geologist Michael Kennedy, discovered and mapped an ancient earthquake fault that runs directly through the center of Lake Hodges. It was said that it leads out to the ocean. The Lake Hodges Scientific Research Center, in 1999 used sophisticated equipment to detect Hodgee, but as usual, findings were inconclusive. In May 2005, News 8 followed up on more recent sightings and dusted off the story.
Fact or fiction, Lake Hodges is a great bird sanctuary, hiking trail, boating and fishing site. Just think, all this for free, and we don’t have to leave Rancho Bernardo! For all the scoop on Hodgee, including photos, google Hodgee.
As someone intimately knowledgable about Lake Hodges — lived there for decades — I want to alert you that most of your info in this blogging is bogus. You took it from a fake website about Lake Hodges that was put up about 10 years ago by a guy who lives in North Carolina as a joke.
All of this following info is a joke and untrue. Were you serious or just misguided in posting this bogus content? And if so, why?
“”"”"Grinding stones and Petra glyphs are frequently identified along the way. Part of the Lake’s history is the persistent rumor that a Loch Ness-type monster resides in here, and not just by local Indians who claimed to have seen him. Scoffers thought theirs was superstition aimed at ceasing development.
In 1930 researchers from Scripps Institute, persuaded to investigate, found no conclusive evidence of any sort of creature in the lake, although one assistant did report seeing a “…lizard-like…” head “…protruding from the surface…” This prompted an internal memo at Scripps suggesting more research was needed.
In 1931, a boat docked on a small pier was destroyed. Police investigating found no footprints near the sandy beach entrance to the pier, but noted in their report that there appeared to have been “…great turmoil under the water along the base of the pier, from a boat or underwater vessel…or perhaps a large creature.”
In 1932, Scripps sent divers and baited a cage with a seal lion, which disappeared, and caught nothing. That practice sent up cries of cruelty from the public, which put an end to the exploration for the time being. One astounding photo emerged from one of the buoy cameras showing a shape like that of a sea creature. Subsequent attempts to capture the creature resulted in smashed cameras and buoys, and the project was finally cancelled.
Diversion to needs of WW II put an end to that exploration until the sixties when a two-family picnic outing turned frightening. A large creature, nicknamed Hodgee, surfaced about fifty yards offshore. In the 1970’s SDSU Professor Gary Peterson and California Division of Mines and Geology geologist Michael Kennedy, discovered and mapped an ancient earthquake fault that runs directly through the center of Lake Hodges. It was said that it leads out to the ocean. The Lake Hodges Scientific Research Center, in 1999 used sophisticated equipment to detect Hodgee, “”"”"”"”"”"”