BLT

BLT is  the Big Laguna Trail where a freshly made bacon, lettuce and tomato (BLT) sandwich would be best after a 10-mile loop hike.  BLT, the trail, not the sandwich, however, is more than 60 miles from downtown San Diego so a BLT, the sandwich not the trail, freshly made with a crispiest  bacon is highly unlikely. I did come  prepared with beef jerky. I also  brought Pha Khin Phat with me  for photo documentation when nobody is looking.  I have conceded to using  a Nikon digital camera where the exact date and hour of the photograph is documented for life. Pha Khin Phat's coming out!

Sunrise Highway is a paved paradise traversing the Cleveland National Forest.  I was the first at the trail head with the help of Mang Gellan. my roadmate. At more than 5,000 feet elevation, I made sure I would only have good memories of the BLT, the trail not the sandwich! Exactly a week ago in the other side of the forest on the way to the Three Sisters Falls,  I was  driven nauseous from sitting on the backseat of  a carpool. I want to remember the snow by the roadside like the pure shaved ice used for slurpee or the tropical fruit melange that we Filipinos call halo-halo.  No spoilers. No barfing and never again!

 

Pha Khin Phat's coming out begins by the Penny Pines landmark. I am still blogging about BLT, not LGBT! My Sweet Baby Cheeses! Pha Khin Phat is a travelling gnome and Flat Stanley combined. The travelling gnome prank involves stealing a gnome from somebody's garden and photographing it at famous landmarks with the photos being posted by mail to the owner. Flat Stanley belongs to another story but he does get pictured in very exotic places and posted elsewhere long before uploading every vacation picture on Facebook became a craze. I like the prank better but I do have a garden gnome and one has to steal a garden gnome to be in some travelling gnome prank contest. Besides, Pha Khin Phat is a prank himself. It would be blasphemy to call him Gautama, the holy one. According to eBay, Pha Khin Phat represents Hotei, a 10th century buddhist monk known for his girth and pleasant nature. Holy  Shih Tzu! Pha Khin Phat sure looks gay! I meant happy, dumbass!

 

I had to leave Pha Khin Phat with Li'l Vibey at the trailhead. Pha Khin Phat is not really openly gay. Bill, the hike leader, a tall athletic gentleman just like the real Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhist religion who is erroneously represented by Pha Khin Phat, asks everyone in the group to make introductions of themselves.

 

"Your name! Where you live! Where you work and what you do for a living!"

 

Holy  Shih Tzu!  I wanted to introduce myself as Goeff Youseff. I came to BLT to hike and not to participate in a critical thinking seminar. I did not want to talk about what I do for a living and say  that I love hiking instead. Don't we all do?  Did you say your name is Dora? Nope, not the explorer, but close! I said I live at Scripps Ranch, or close. I suddenly remember telling Maritie last week at the Three Sisters Falls that I live in Rancho Penasquitos. Whatever! I think the lady who later stripped off to her bikini tops at the trails said she works for  Scripps Research Institute. Really? Kewl!  A guy named Richard introduced himself as a doctor or a physician but he is off-duty and he hoped no one  gets sick. The lady next to him introduced herself as nursing student.  What do I want to do for a living? I wish I could tell everyone I am a blogger. What, a booger?  As in a piece of dried nasal mucus?  I remember the Blessed Virgin Mary: Ayyeddmah Varkendjaab!

 

 

Bill, the tall athletic guy just like the real Gautama Buddha who was erroneously misreprented by Pha Khin Phat refers to the hike as BLT Classic. It does sound like my favorite Subway sandwich! After four miles of hiking, BLT comes to the picture with  twenty-six hiking addicts and six dogs! BLT, for the umpteenth time, is not the sandwich dumbass! It is the big lagoon trail. Laguna is lagoon in English. There are two lagoons in the meadows. Classic BLT, indeed. The lagoons are sandwiched in between  pine-clad canyons along the meadows, the  vast grassland area by Mount Laguna in the Cleveland National Forest.

 

 

Not a bad snow angel for a badass.! It was my second attempt to lie down on an undisturbed snow at the BLT. I hesitated the first time I sat on the snow not because I realized the snow was cold as I told Maritie who was trying to take the photo. The truth was,  I didn't want to lie down on the snow and seen  by everyone like I was waiting to get laid.  I waited for the group to leave the area before I handed Maritie my digital camera.  Maritie told  me to put my feet up. I playfully did as I was told. I have seen Karlee made a snow angel at Flagstaff, Arizona some years back. I flapped my arms and  spread my legs.  Just like getting midnight snack! I was sure nobody was watching.  Making snow angels is a child's game, not some foreplay for a middle-aged mother firetrucker! Actually, it felt good lying on the snow. It's probably as good a having BLT, the sandwich not the trail,  for midnight snack!