What boy living in the Pacific Northwest wouldn’t grow wide-eyed at tales told by tribal leaders, loggers and hunters about mystifying creatures the elders called “forest people”?

Kristapher Edgecombe would listen to those tales in fascination when he was growing up near the Nez Perce reservation, surrounded by woods and rolling fields of wheat. He had no way of knowing that someday he would have his own adventures where those mythical creatures were concerned, and even his own YouTube channel called Xpedition_Edge, with a growing following. There was no such thing as YouTube back then.

Born in 1978 in the small town of Troy, Idaho, Edgecombe and his family moved to Moscow, Idaho shortly after his birth. He went through most of his education there.

“However,” Edgecombe noted, “my roots in Washington run deep. My parents were from the Maple Valley area, and my grandparents live in Renton, so that area was always like a second home to me.”

All his life, Edgecombe has been drawn to the outdoors.

“I grew up chasing snakes in the yard, catching bunnies in the woods, and making mason jar ecosystems from the creek animals,” he said. “As I got older, starting in high school, I began exploring further — going on week-long backpacking trips, hike-in fishing campouts, and multi-day river rafting excursions.”

Photo courtesy Kristapher Edgecombe/ Edgecombe and his mini Jeep, which he said he uses because it’s fun and can get around in areas that are difficult for other vehicles.

His love of the outdoors stayed with him with each passing year.

“My grandfather had a cabin, and every summer he would bring my uncle and me out to Sequim for a week or two to fish along the Strait,” Edgecombe related. “Coming from Moscow, which has a lot of cows, to Sequim, which also had so many cows but with the ocean right there, felt like the best of both worlds combined.

“I knew even back then that I wanted to raise my family here.”

In 2012, after his oldest child finished kindergarten, Edgecombe moved his family to Sequim. Today, his two oldest children attend Sequim High School and his youngest is finishing elementary school this year. They range in age from 11-18.

Edgecombe’s love of the wild has evolved into family adventures. “We’re always out there,” he said.

While not out exploring open spaces and wild places, Edgecombe is earning a living. He works as a corrections officer at the Clallam Bay Corrections Center, one of only two maximum-security prisons in Washington state.

“It’s a good job,” he said. “Though we work a lot of hours.”

Clallam County is meaningful to Edgecombe not only because of the trips to his grandfather’s cabin and the life he has developed here, but because it is where he said he found evidence that something exists out there in the forests — a towering creature known as Sasquatch.

“I never saw anything I couldn’t explain until I visited Clallam County as an adult,” he detailed. “A couple of years before we officially moved here, during a cold January trip, we were hiking up Marymere Falls by Lake Crescent. We saw Sasquatch tracks crossing the creek and the path, leaving a perfect 14-inch print.

“That changed everything,” he said.

“Since then, I’ve found other evidence. Just this last summer at Yahoo Lake, we found an awesome track with a clear print — there is video of that on my channel. I have seen two other probable prints since then as well. I also captured an incredible 11-second audio clip about four years ago of something screaming. It is currently being analyzed by the Olympic Project, and they have said it is a remarkable piece of audio.”

According to its website, the Olympic Project is an association of researchers, investigators, biologists and trackers committed to documenting the existence of Sasquatch through science and education.

Edgecombe looks for evidence of any Sasquatches near the salmon runs in the Dungeness River’s Gray Wolf tributary for an episode of “Expedition_Edge” on his YouTube channel.

Now, Edgecombe shares his own research and adventures through his Xpedition_Edge YouTube channel, a platform he created to inspire curiosity rather than certainty.

“I believe there are three kinds of people,” he said. “Skeptics, believers and experiencers — those who have had an encounter. I am a believer.”

The channel is designed to bring viewers into the woods with Edgecombe — what he jokingly calls letting people “vicariously Squatch.” From perimeter checks using his bright green Coolster mini Jeep to overnight Squatch campouts, the tone is equal parts serious research and outdoor fun.

Edgecombe frequently collaborates with other local researchers, including Port Angeles’ Matt Parrish and the team from Sasquatch Island. His newest series, Beyond the Map, focuses on off-trail exploration in the Dungeness River Valley, building a working map of possible Sasquatch activity in the Buckhorn Wilderness. The fourth installment was released just weeks ago, on Christmas Day.

Edgecombe meets with Bigfoot researcher Ron Morehead for his YouTube show.

Beyond Bigfoot

Edgecombe’s curiosity doesn’t stop at the forest’s edge. He has also turned his attention to Cadborosaurus — often called “Caddy” — a legendary sea serpent reported from Northern California to Alaska, with many alleged sightings in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Georgia Strait.

He believes some populations may even be landlocked in Lake Okanagan and Lake Chelan. On his channel, Edgecombe has shared video footage he says shows two 20- to 30-foot creatures swimming in the surf near Twin Beaches, close to Clallam Bay.

“They get less attention than Bigfoot,” he said, “but I believe they are a vital part of our local mystery.”

What’s next

Since late November, Xpedition_Edge has gained more than 200 subscribers and logged 2,000 additional watch hours — growth Edgecombe sees as a sign of momentum.

“It shows we’re finding our rhythm,” he said.

He is currently in talks to speak at Sasquatch conventions and appear on other programs. Perhaps most exciting, he and Parrish are preparing to launch a new podcast, Sasquatch of the Olympics, with a planned premiere in late February.

For Edgecombe, the goal remains steady and grounded: to explore, document and share — always with a sense of wonder.

“In the end,” he said, “I just want to be ready if that experience happens.”

Edgecombe, left, and fellow Sasquatch researcher Matt Parrish of Port Angeles come across a strange structure on Bear Mountain off Palo Alto Road.

Photo courtesy Kristapher Edgecombe/ One of Edgecombe’s Xpedition_Edge episodes featured Boise State University professor and Sasquatch researcher Jeff Meldrum, who died last year.

Photo courtesy Kristapher Edgecombe/ “Beyond the Map” is a new series by Edgecombe that he said features five episodes so far.