Bigfoot Search Team Finds Fresh 12-Inch Footprint and Mysterious Wood Knocks

If you've been scrolling through YouTube lately looking for fresh Sasquatch content, there's a recent episode of The Cryptid Crew Podcast that's been making waves, and for good reason. Tanner Hoskins, co-founder of the Pacific Northwest Bigfoot Search and executive director of the Pacific Northwest Missing Persons Project, sat down to share some genuinely intriguing findings from a recent expedition, plus some family history that will give you chills. Hoskins comes by his interest in cryptids honestly. His great-grandmother, born in the 1920s in rural Idaho near the Graagle-Pierce area, grew up around loggers who had a habit of vanishing without a trace. Chainsaws left running in trees, axes still mounted, and the workers simply gone. The old loggers called whatever was taking them "hidebehinds," and Hoskins still carries the warnings his great-grandma passed down: never hunt alone, never fish alone, never turn your back on the woods. For those unfamiliar, hidebehinds are a fascinating piece of Pacific Northwest folklore that often gets overshadowed by Sasquatch. They're described as lanky, around six feet tall, and true to their name, they conceal themselves behind trees, waiting for the perfect moment to snatch an unsuspecting victim. Some accounts say they whistle at night to lure people deeper into the forest. Whether they're a distinct entity or simply an older name for Sasquatch before the term was coined in the 1950s remains debated, but the stories persist in logging communities throughout the region. Now, onto the expedition that has everyone talking. Hoskins and his team, including Shane Corson, Alec Petrov, Nathaniel Bronnis, and co-founder Alberto Kenyon, headed into the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in early August. The site itself sounds like something out of a Sasquatch investigator's dream: an 11-acre lake with only one way in, surrounded by steep terrain, heavy deadfall, and trees that look like they've been twisted apart by something with tremendous strength. On Saturday, while walking the perimeter of the lake, Kelly Stopp (another co-founder) and Hoskins came across something remarkable on the muddy shoreline: a clear footprint measuring 12 inches from heel to toe with a 5-inch toe spread. To put that in perspective, that would correspond to a U.S. men's shoe size of 13 or 14, but the width and shape didn't match any known human footprint pattern. The team doesn't believe it was a minimalist shoe or barefoot hiker, especially considering the remote location and the fact that the only way to reach that side of the lake is through their campsite. What makes this find even more compelling is the comparison test they conducted. Alberto Kenyon, standing 6'1" and weighing 260 pounds with a size 11.5 foot, stepped into the same mud. His footprint barely made a quarter-inch impression before the soil sprang back up. The mystery print, by contrast, sank about an inch deep. Whatever made that track was significantly heavier than a large adult male, or the soil conditions were uniquely suited to preserving its weight. Based on the pine needles found inside the print and the fact that no one else could have accessed the area without Hoskins knowing, the team estimates the track was left either Thursday evening or early Friday morning, meaning something was moving around their campsite within the first 24 hours of arrival. But the evidence didn't stop there. Saturday night brought audio recordings of distinct wood knocks, one around 2:30 a.m. and another around 3:15 a.m., captured on Hoskins' recorder and corroborated by Petrov's equipment. While trees do pop and crack as temperatures shift, these knocks were noticeably louder than typical thermal expansion sounds, especially considering it had been a 90-degree day with nighttime temperatures around 65 degrees. Hoskins also touched on a case that continues to haunt researchers: the Shell Rock incident, where witnesses reported having boulders and sticks thrown at them along with vocalizations so powerful they felt the roars in their chests. Disturbingly, a week after that encounter, Robert Bissell vanished from the same area, adding another name to the Pacific Northwest Missing Persons Project's growing list of unresolved disappearances. The combination of fresh tracks, audio evidence, and the site's history of strange phenomena makes this expedition one worth paying attention to. The full conversation dives deeper into the team's methodology, the hidebehind lore, and what they're planning next. Definitely worth carving out some time to watch the whole thing. For those wanting to follow the Pacific Northwest Bigfoot Search's ongoing work, their findings and updates are worth keeping an eye on. Cases like this remind us that the Pacific Northwest still holds plenty of secrets, and dedicated researchers like Hoskins and his team are doing important work documenting what so many others dismiss.