“It brought me to a place where things seemed new again.”

To say the least, this high had taken all of my first world problems and placed them on a very tiny raft and pushed it down a slow moving current of lies. What I was left with was a sense of unencumbered joy that would not be wasted indoors or obsessing over petty annoyances. This high had a way of accentuating positivity at its most basic level, and isn’t that what you want from a joint? In fact, all I wanted was a little escape from a morning filled with minor grievances. What I got was a Papillon-like adventure of the mind.

As this deeply euphoric high worked its way from my head all the way through to my feet, I grabbed the dog and set off on a local hike for no other reason than I felt like the outdoors needed us. By the time I hit the trailhead, I looked over both shoulders to make sure no one was looking and had an impromptu dance party with my lab mix to John Legend’s rendition of “What Christmas Means to Me.” It was a nice moment of careless abandon that could have easily doubled as a Target commercial.

The potent properties of this Caramel Apple Pre-Roll saw me through a 5-mile hike/jog combo, only to be followed by a thirty minute heavy bag hitting session. Like magic, my day had turned into a high-impact, all-embracing joyland of kinetic energy, and I just wanted to include everyone I knew in this feeling of exuberance. In that respect, I could see this offering from A Golden State as being a valued centerpiece to any social gathering. While it’s billed as a hybrid, I felt it shined best as a sativa. It was unrelenting in its curiosity seeking and penchant for eliciting fun.

“It was a nice moment of careless abandon that could have easily doubled as a Target commercial.”

This pre-roll claims to be rolled with paper cultivated with the snowmelt from Mount Shasta. Now I have no idea what that actually means, but I go up to Mount Shasta quite often on the account of my sister living near there and all I could picture was an old-timey, mineral-prospector-type rolling up a fatty near a snow covered embankment at the foot of the mountain. He is a wise old hermit whose cave is protected by an army of snowmen, and an intricate spy network of woodland creatures that he communes with when properly baked. It made me miss the raw beauty of Northern California, and the frontiersman spirit of those old Gold Rush towns. More than anything it made me wish I was on a snowmobile slicing through fresh powder and becoming one with the season. The real beauty of this high was that I could just close my eyes and see myself in those places and beyond. In the midst of a pandemic, where travelling and seeking is sometimes difficult, to realize that is something worth more than gold altogether.