Five-Star Trails: Charlotte: Your Guide to the Area's Most Beautiful Hikes (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780897328883)

Joshua Kinser is a writer and musician based in Chimney Rock, North Carolina, about a 45-minute drive from Charlotte. Growing up by the beaches of Pensacola, Florida, Kinser would head up to the mountains of North Carolina every summer and cater to his passion for hiking and backpacking. Feeding into his love of travel and hunger for new experiences, those early pastimes led him to make a profession of writing travel guides, magazine articles, and outdoor-adventure guidebooks. With regular stints as a wildlife biology field technician for the U.S. Forest Service, Kinser also finds himself these days in back country in Florida, in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, in Montana's Glacier National Park, and in California's National Forest lands surrounding Yosemite National Park. Indulging his cultural side, Kinser also is a professional drummer performing in wedding bands, clubs, and in cruise ship orchestras. Aboard the latter, he has drummed his way along the perimeters of Australia, Japan, China, New Zealand, Borneo, and South Korea. As an accomplished author, Kinser wrote Moon Handbook's 2011 guidebook FLORIDA GULF COAST, third Edition. In 2010 alone, he published more than 200 articles online for websites such as Trails.com, Ehow, and USA Today Travel. Completing his degree in Journalism from Pensacola State College in December 2010, he also has worked as a staff writer for Gannett with the PENSACOLA NEWS JOURNAL.