Then I got really sad because I knew that nobody was going to come up to see me. Ventura County is like Mars for them. Thank goodness I spotted this London Pound Cake flower before I crashed into self-pity and began the grueling process of cropping out my friends faces from my Facebook photo albums with giant question marks and WTF emojis.

It felt as if this high just snatched me from the doldrums like one giant mechanical arcade claw hand. CHA-THWUNK! That is the sound it made in my mind when it caught and raised me from a pit of negative emotionality to a vast pool of exuberance that felt limitless to the inner eye. I remember sitting up on the sofa as rays of the sun sliced through my bedroom blinds and thought to myself, “Huh. Well I’ll be.” 

It’s as close to divine inspiration as I’m likely to get, but I was instantly overcome with this overwhelming feeling of wanting to embark on an outdoor journey of some sort. Nothing too spicy, but also nothing that could be completed before lunch. I wanted to Goldilocks this shit. I turned to Winston Churchill himself, who said, “Every man should ask himself each day whether he is not too readily accepting of negative solutions.” 

I then burned a bowl as deep as the bluest ocean, and set off to organize a solo bicycle trip from my doorstep to Malibu and back. A 50 mile or so loop that goes through some rough state park terrain, but winds up at a beautiful stretch of beach and back again.

This sort of trek would not have been possible had this flower not been as focused and manageable as it was. That said, it delivered some top-notch euphoria. The sort that pairs well with a cool, crisp, sunny winter day in Southern California. For a weekend, the bike trail was strangely deserted. 

Tearing down gravel paths and ultimately finding a chill cruising speed on a long stretch of paved bike path, I settled into the tail end of an epic hybrid flower high that works just as well heading to the Pacific Ocean as it would in the middle of Piccadilly Circus. It’s just a state of mind, and the state of mind I was in resembled the perfect blend of adventurous curiosity and insightful calm. 

At one moment I could get lost in a song and use that as the thematic backdrop to me tearing across gravel bike trails, and the next moment I could be entranced by distant rock formations on the horizon and feel as if I’m parasailing into the ether. This high latches onto anything of beauty and makes you drink from it.

London Pound Cake 75 is a dense flower with accents of yellow that make it look like lemon rinds sprinkled over a dark forest. The aroma smells of wildflower candy, and it tastes of sweet berries and pine with a touch of citrus. This is a potent strain that can do great things, and setting out on a long bike trip when you are high is a really bad idea unless you are used to strong cannabis and have done this sort of thing before (and take every safety precaution). 

This cannabis from Cookies California helped get me out of a potential funk and saw me through a memorable weekend of self-discovery and relaxation. A freeing and rewarding experience amidst the great expanse of nature that I will surely revisit again and again.