Walking for Inspiration

Most days I take a walk after my morning writing. Other days I play platform tennis or take longer hikes. For me, the exercise helps both mentally and physically. I also use walking to brainstorm—to come up with ideas for my current writing project. I’ve also used walks to practice for presentations I give.

Yesterday, I went on a seven hour hike. I got some writing done first thing in the morning and then spent the rest of the day hiking. It was a ranger led hike through the burn area of the Flagstaff Fire that occurred last summer on the slope of Bear Peak west of Boulder, Colorado. In addition to a lot of exercise, I learned about fighting wild fires from the ranger who led the hike. If lower branches are cut away and pine trees aren’t too dense, they can survive a fire. The problem is that too many of our forests have become too dense. Below are pictures of the area we hiked through.