Frank Ledwell

Publisher

Frank Ledwell is an avid explorer, adventurer, and advocate of responsible outdoor recreation and off-highway travel. Over the last 25 years, he has had the fortune of exploring the world on four wheels, two wheels, and by foot including destinations across North and Central America, Eastern and Western Europe, and Asia.

Frank is an accomplished writer whose experience as a publisher began in 2005 as the co-founder of JPFreek Adventure Magazine, North America’s first fully digital Jeep vehicle adventure lifestyle magazine. As a catalyst in the overland space at that time, his publishing career has been instrumental in helping to grow the overland and vehicle-based adventure segments, and his articles on off-highway travel, adventure destinations, and product/vehicle reviews have been featured globally in a handful of online and print publications. Frank is a member of the Texas Auto Writers Association, the Texas Motor Press Association, and the Texas Outdoor Writers Association, and has been the recipient of multiple Excellence in Craft awards for writing and photography, awarded annually by the Texas Auto Writers Association. Additionally, he is a 2nd Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo, a former club champion and tournament winner in tennis, and is currently working on his MBA at Baylor University.

Frank is a native Texan and resides north of Houston with his family.

Jason Varnadoe

Social Media Editor

Jason is an avid fisherman, hunter, habitual ponderer, tinkerer, wordsmith and general purpose man out of doors. He was born in the once small town of Lexington, South Carolina and involuntarily relocated to Arizona in the early 1980s. From the Sonoran desert range, canyon creeks flowing from watersheds off the Mogollon Rim and the forests of the Kaibab and Colorado plateaus, Jason has spent decades meandering about these lands in search of nothing in particular yet discovering more than one could imagine.

During an eight-year return to his ancestral home of South Carolina, Jason built upon this love for the outdoors, exploring granite mountain ranges, flowing midland rivers, low country marshlands, coastal barrier islands and open salted waters. After returning to Arizona, Jason has spent his free time doing the things he loves including playing ’90s grunge music at unhealthy volumes, believing himself to be the only Clemson Tigers fan in the state of Arizona, crafting the occasional piece of furniture, and building a love for the outdoors with his nieces and nephews.

Jonathan Hanson

Destination: Overland Columnist

Jonathan Hanson’s expedition experience encompasses land and sea-scapes from Baja, Mexico to the Beaufort Sea, from the Libyan Desert to the Namib, and modes of transportation from sea kayaks to sailboats to bicycles to Land Cruisers and Land Rovers. He has traveled among and worked with cultures as diverse as the Seri Indians and the Himba, the Inuit and the Maasai. Jonathan has taught wildlife tracking, natural history writing, 4WD techniques, and other subjects for many conservation and government organizations. He is an elected fellow of the Explorers Club, and a charter member of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. His writing experience spans a dozen books and two dozen magazines, including Outside, National Geographic Adventure, Nature Conservancy, Sea Kayaker, and Backpacker.

Jonathan and his wife, Roseann, created and owned the largest adventure travel event of its kind in the world, Overland Expo, which they sold in 2018.

Bret Edge

Senior Photographer

Bret Edge is a professional landscape and adventure photographer living in the high desert paradise of Moab, Utah with his wife, Melissa, their son Jackson, and two All-Terrain Pugs.  Bret leads private and group photography workshops throughout the Rocky Mountain region and sells fine art prints through his Moab studio, The Edge Gallery.  His images have been used in dozens of magazines, books and tourist publications.

When he doesn’t have a camera glued to his face he’s probably road tripping with his family, mountain biking, hiking, working on his flip flop tan or looking for an excuse to sleep in.

Bret’s portfolio is available online at www.bretedge.com  and you can learn more about his workshops at www.moabphotoworkshops.com.

Bill & Susan Dragoo

Contributing Editors

Bill and Susan embrace adventure travel in many forms – two-wheeled, four-wheeled, and on foot. As long as it involves experiencing more of the great outdoors they are hard-pressed to resist an opportunity. When Bill’s not tackling the toughest trails in the Rockies on his adventure motorcycle and Susan’s on a break from leading women backpackers through the Ouachita Mountains, the two are exploring together in their Toyota 4Runner, the “GS of Trucks”.

A desire to connect contemporary explorers with the places and people of the frontier led the Oklahoma-based couple to study and travel the region of Comancheria. Among his many pursuits, Bill is an MSF-certified riding instructor and recently kicked off an Adventure Riding Skills class near the Dragoos’ hometown of Norman. Bill was a member of the 2010 BMW GS Trophy team, representing the United States in competition in Africa. Susan devotes much of her time to historical travel writing and outdoor photography.

Andrea Ledwell

Associate Publisher

Andrea Ledwell was born and raised in Mississippi, but now chooses to call Texas her home. As a writer and published author of the book, Pushing Forward, you can find her most days sitting behind the keyboard of her computer while staring out the window, dreaming of her next adventure. Andrea is the recipient of the Excellence in Craft Award given by the Texas Auto Writers Association for her article titled, “Chihuahuan Adventures,’’ in addition to being a featured author at the event, “A Calling: The Civil Right to Education” presented by Spike Lee, The XQ Institute and the Emerson Collective.  She credits her love of exploration and the great outdoors to her time growing up as a little girl sporting pigtails and rolled up jeans, meandering through the Piney Woods of Mississippi.

In her free time, when she’s not busy trying to change the world, she enjoys practicing Taekwondo (she holds a 2nd Degree black belt), reading, painting, spending time with her family, and playing with her English Bulldog, Maggie. She is also currently working on her Master’s Degree in History and plans to continue her education with a Doctorate upon graduation in 2025.

Jason Sakurai

Contributing Editor

Life has been quite an adventure for Jason. Eschewing corporate life with General Motors and Nissan early on, he opted instead to be the Western Advertising Manager for Four Wheeler magazine, outselling well entrenched, larger rival publications. From there, he became the first Director of Sales for the National Hot Rod Association, reviving its moribund Championship Drag Racing Series on TV with a plethora of new advertisers. Later, he excelled as Western Ad Sales Manager for Cycle World magazine, before starting his own firm, Roadhouse Marketing, specializing in the automotive aftermarket and action sports/outdoor industries.

Concurrently throughout his career, Jason has been an editor and contributor to automotive enthusiast titles in print and online too numerous to mention. He has won International Automotive Press Association (IAPA) awards for writing and photography, and more recently served as an IAPA judge. His insights on the auto industry appear regularly in business publications, and he still shoots feature stories for enthusiast magazines here as well as abroad. In his spare time, Jason is working on his latest overlanding vehicle, planning for a number of adventures once it’s completed. His motto, ‘If it isn’t fun, why do it?’, applies not only to his travels but to business as well, and for this reason is a valuable member of the OutdoorX4 staff.

Randy Langstraat

Senior Photographer

Randy Langstraat is a photographer and outdoor enthusiast based on the Colorado Plateau at the edge of the Rocky Mountains in Grand Junction, Colorado. He spends much of his free time in the outdoors exploring the backcountry whether it be hiking, four-wheeling in his Jeep, or rafting. He especially enjoys searching for hidden ancient ruins and rock art, but also has a love for the grand landscapes and intimate scenes in nature.

Adam Bible

Health & Fitness Columnist

A keeper of luxurious beards in the winter, Adam Bible has been a freelance writer and editor for over 20 years. His work has appeared in publications including Men’s Journal, Men’s Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, Bicycling, Natural Health, and Whole Living. A New Yorker by way of North Carolina, Adam recently moved south again to grow plants, own guns, and raise chickens. He spends the slow Southern days tinkering with vintage chain saws, keeping his 1972 Scout II running, and trying to find the sweet spot between drunkenness and accurate dart throwing.

Kris Wilson

Copy Editor

Kris Wilson lives in the Catskill Mountains of New York with her daughter, Katie. For the last two decades, she has found great fulfillment teaching high school English to juniors and seniors. In 2021, her essay,  “ ‘Green Hair and Bones in Their Noses’: Teenagers’ Appreciation for No Country for Old Men, was published by the Modern Language Association in a collection entitled Approaches to Teaching the Works of Cormac McCarthy. Kris also likes to write for Toyota Trails and has two Land Cruisers. She loves her 2007 UZJ100, which she tows with and drives cross-country. However, the 1992 FJ80 she bought in 2021 has captured her heart. 

She prefers to be outside, and loves to garden, kayak, horseback ride, backcountry camp, and take walks with her German Shepherd, Lucy. Kris makes annual trips to Colorado and Utah, and is happiest at the oars of her raft on multi-day trips down wilderness rivers.

Stan and Michelle Wright

Senior Editors

Stan Wright grew up chasing adventure and brook trout in New York’s Catskill Mountains and was eventually lured to the tall peaks, clean rivers and overlanding opportunities of Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West. A former Marine, he serves as the Managing Editor of Toyota Trails, a leading enthusiast title produced for the Toyota Land Cruiser Association, and is also as Co-Director of several vehicle-based events held annually in Colorado.

Stan’s wealth of outdoors and vehicle-based adventure travel has made an integral part of OutdoorX4 all these years. His wife, Michelle, is originally from Pennsylvania and is an accomplished marathon runner and adventurist. Michelle and Stan both enjoy outdoors adventure with their family throughout the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado.

Scott Brown

Senior Photographer

Scott Brown grew up with two hands on the dash, two feet on the seat, and his face pressed against the front windshield of his dad’s Ford four-wheel drive. Peering out, fog forming around his nose, he was always looking for that road runner his dad would tease him about. A couple of decades have passed and with safety a greater priority, Scott strives to instill a bit of adventure into the lives of his wife and two daughters. Their family having visited many of North America’s greatest adventure destinations, he has now equipped his daughters with passports and they plan to begin exploring the rest of the globe as a family.  They haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on their list.

Alan Ellis

Contributing Author

Alan is an avid climber, mountaineer, writer, and longtime Jeep enthusiast. As a mountaineer, he’s done over 30 of Colorado’s 14,000′ peaks, including many of them in winter. His experience also includes the Tetons in Wyoming, the Wind River Range, Devils Tower, and several other technical mountain routes. As a writer, he and his wife, Jackie, once worked with the Jeep® brand as their primary adventure blogger, and contributed dozens of Jeep-related adventure and how-to articles through their blog and a variety of adventure focused outlets.

Alan resides in Oklahoma City with his wife, Jackie, where they are both enjoying the “retired” life as professional skydiving instructors. They can be also be found traveling the country in their Jeep Rubicon with their dog, Tucker.