Hey Garrett, thanks for the info. I played around with it a little last night before bed and yes, it does appear to be something within the .hmp file itself. Still haven't isolated it yet though.

I downloaded the litec_samples.zip and used the small.hmp file within that tut and everything is working fine with that .hmp file.

So I'll keep looking into the T7tutorial terrain and try your recommendations to use this a learning exercise.

If you wanted to take a peek at it the template itself is found right on GS's main page:
t7tutorial

I have done everything step by step as indicated in the tut. If you take a peek at it, it is the Blank Level portion of the tut.