Anna is right that the trichlor is acidic and will drop your pH. You don't say what your pH reading is, but I would advise you to bump it up to 7.8 or 7.9 to give it some wiggle room without getting too low.

Regarding the skimmer basket being full of bugs and leaves ------- how much debris are you talking about? Enough in 5 days time to totally fill the basket? You do NOT want that to happen as it might destroy your pump. If you have any doubt that the basket will get filled, you should probably ask a neighbor to come over and dump it out once in awhile for you.