Being in my front yard is an experience of solitude and beauty that brings a profound appreciation of nature, though my neighbors’ lawn-moving lessens the experience.

Several years ago I eliminated the lawn and put in indigenous plants to mimic an Eastern Washington landscape. I made trails so that running in my yard would be like running in the country which I explained in the post Let’s go for a run in my yard.

Because I stick to trails when I run, I’m not able to fully explore my front yard wilderness. Recently I did an all-day, off-trail hike to do just that. I was very excited as I started out.

I discovered some wildflowers I hadn’t noticed before.

I thoroughly explored my wilderness and thanks to a good map, avoided getting lost.

It occurred to me that since my front yard is roadless and so wild, I should have it declared a federally protected wilderness area.

There’s a famous place in Montana called the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area. If my wilderness is able to get federal designation, I’d like it to be called the Jim Johnson Wilderness Area. And as the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area is often called simply, The Bob, I’d like my area to be known as The Jim.

So after my day-long hike and the prospect of a designated wilderness area at my doorstep, I went to bed a tired, but very happy man.

Zzzzzzzzzz…snhhnngggukkkk…zzzzzzzzzz…snhhnngggukkkk.