Go West old man!: Solomon 5, hike

Happy St. Paddy's Day!
It took until well after lunch to get to hike but we made it! First it was back up Graham Mtn road to hike a short trail with Cal. except this trail was only on one map, for good reason. It was an old road that wasn't really there. The computer said we were on the road but instead of following the contour the land took a very sharp drop with no trace of there ever having been a road there! So on to location 2. This time we found the road to the trailhead but as we followed it it turned into a wash. Foot deep sand on the creek bed. It appears from the satellite image that the road was probably flooded and became creek bed in some rain event. The truck was going OK but is not set up for this kind of 4 wheeling. If I had needed to stop for anything in that sand I probably would not get moving again. I had the chains but who wants to put on chains in deep sand! So... on to plan C. This time we found a real trail head; not marked but it was where the map indicated it should be. And there was another car parked there! It also happened to be in a cow-calf pasture. There was a herd of cows and calves there to greet us. And they thought we were pretty interesting, all coming to crowd around us, sniff, bellow, stare at us. It took 5 minutes to park because I had to wait for them to give us room.
So we hiked up a ways, ran out of trail and had to back track to find the unmarked turn in the road that became the trail. They do not believe in blazing a trail like we do in the East. Just look around and find the treadway. If you can. We did! WE went up almost a couple miles. About as far as Cal wanted to go. He was doing fine and was still good when we got back to the truck. Just right!
Back to camp to relax with some Knappogue Castle (my favorite Irish Whisky) while watching the sunset. We had to settle for canned corned beef but that's how life in the camping lane works.