Advancing Care Enhancing Community

When a healthcare need arises, we rise to the occasion.

A well-funded hospital is the heart of a healthy community. The Ojai Valley Hospital Foundation is here to anticipate your needs and ensure that Community Memorial Hospital – Ojai and its Continuing Care Center have the resources to meet them. We raise funds to make facility improvements, purchase advanced medical technologies, and launch new programs and services. And we make sure to keep you informed about the healthcare offerings and enhancements we help fund. Because when it comes to staying healthy, staying connected is key.

Learn more at mycmh.org/giving or call 805-948-2317.

Never did I imagine that these words would come out of my mouth: “personal trainer.” But when I turned seventy-five years old, my wife and sons generously spotted me a series of at-home sessions.

Over the pandemic years I’d stopped working out at our local geriatric gym, although at home I did faithfully watch TV and powerlift spoons full of ice cream. At 6’6”, I soon looked like a stuffed olive on a toothpick. My “physique” needed some retouching, but mainly my family wanted me to stay healthy.

Having tried gyms in the past, I knew I didn’t love the clanking weights and the macho roars and grunts of the ripped regulars. As it turned out, personal trainer Heath Perry is nothing like the stereotype drill sergeant. Instead, he acts as a gentle guide into the world of fitness.

“I’ve kind of created my own unique way of approaching the body,” says Heath, “using a multitude of disciplines, from ancient ones to modern approaches.”

STORY BY JERRY CAMARILLO DUNN, JR

He is 55 but looks 40, making him a walking advertisement for his work. In person he quickly puts you at ease, thanks to the warmth of his country-comfort Kansas accent. Heath says he acquired it growing up “on the blue-collar side of the tracks –kind of like Cockney compared to proper English.” When his mother remarried, her new husband moved her and Heath to the white-collar side of town, and he went to Catholic high school. He saw new possibilities and became the first in his family to go to college, graduating from Kansas State University in 1989 in the fledgling field of Exercise Science.

“I was shy and introverted back then,” he says. In a moment of serendipity, a friend talked him into trying out for the cheerleading squad. “I couldn’t do any stunts. I didn’t even know the words to the school fight song. The worst tryout ever!” But he ended up making the squad and later coached and judged cheerleading. “It brought me out of my shell,” he recalls gratefully, “and made me feel comfortable in front of people, speaking and teaching. It was a big step.” That lucky step helped lead to his life’s work — getting people excited about moving their bodies and feeling good.

Heath stayed on at Kansas State to earn dual Master’s degrees in sports nutrition and dietetics. By then he had the confidence and perspective to look for a bigger life, and soon he wasn’t in Kansas anymore. “I ended up settling in Miami Beach, of all places. It was incredibly diverse. You’d walk down Ocean Drive,” he recalls, “and hear every kind of language, see all kinds of people and lifestyles. I thought, ‘This will be good for me!’” He landed at a “cool little health club” and also worked in physical therapy. He got certified in Pilates, taught by a woman who worked with Miami’s ballet dancers. He used exercise and nutrition to help HIV patients. He even spent time at Gianni Versace’s Italianate “palace,” training the fashion designer daily — but only for a single week, until Versace was shot on his front steps.

Relocating to an upscale gym in Denver, Heath taught other fitness instructors diet and exercise. In 2005 Men’s Health magazine spotlighted him as one of the country’s top 100 trainers. Despite the crescendo of opportunities around him, though, he and a girlfriend decided to travel around the world for two years. By the time he’d been on the road for nine months, Heath was in Thailand and facing a midlife crisis he calls “manopause.”

“I had let go of everything in my life. I had no commitments, no have-to’s,” he remembers. “After so much traveling, you reach the point where you’re going to that next temple or famous beach, and you think: What am I doing, really? I had all this education and had just left it behind at a moment when I could have really taken off. I needed to figure out what was going on with me.”

Heath returned and settled in California. “Yoga and the spiritual side of life are in the culture out here,” he says, and that helped him develop his own creative, intuitive approach to health and fitness. “There are aspects of yoga, Pilates, cross-fit, Qigong, and so on that are valuable to everyone. These little nuggets are what I pull into my practice. It’s not something you could find at a health club.”

Heath started me out slow and easy. Rather than having had me buy expensive fitness equipment, he’d recommended minimalist gear that offers maximum benefit. One of my favorites is the TRX system, which is almost absurdly simple: two handles on sturdy straps that hook over a beam in my office. The exercises use my own suspended body weight to build strength.

I also like the Bosu, an inflated hemisphere of blue rubber. Standing on the rounded top to do a squat, I have to adjust my balance continually in order to stay “on the ball” and not fall off. This added element builds both strength and stability. I also have stretch bands that hook over a door, so they’re portable –handy, since I’m a travel writer and can now exercise on the road.

“I like helping older people fend off the inevitable stuff of aging,” says Heath. “My definition of exercise: Doing what you need to do to keep doing what you love — whether that’s hiking, biking, surfing, or dancing. And doing it in a way that you come to love, too.”

Where I once viewed a workout as a grind, I now see it as a pleasure. “Notice how good you feel afterward,” says Heath, “compared to how you felt when you started – energy-wise, body-wise, mind-wise. You think, ‘This is why I do it!”

At the end of the day, if you leave people feeling better – stronger, more alive, happier — you’re doing good work in the world.

For information on Heath Perry’s personal training sessions, classes at the Ojai Recreation Department and Sacred Space studio, online videos, and free weekly Zoom class: www.livin.guide

JACALYN BOOTH

Certified Colon Hydrotherapist

Ojai Digestive Health

With more than 30 years of experience in healing modalities, Jacalyn brings a deep level of caring to the art of colon hydrotherapy. Professional, nurturing, experienced. OjaiDigestiveHealth.com

805-901-3000

MICHELLE BYRNES

Elemental Nutrition

Nutrition & Wellness counseling focused on anti-aging, detoxification, personalized nutrition, & weight loss. For more information, visit elementalnutritioncoach.com

805-218-8550

LESLIE

Cert. Hypnotherapist

Find your calm center. Release negative thinking, emotional reactivity, anxiety, fear and unhelpful behaviors. Improve sleep and comfort. Safe, loving, rapid change. It’s time to feel better! leslie@lesliebouche.com

LeslieBouche.com | 805-796-1616

LAURIE EDGCOMB

Lic. Acupuncturist since 1986, voted best in Ojai! Natural medicine including Microcurrent, nutritional and herbal consultation, Facial Rejuvenation.

LaurieEdgcomb.com

805-798-4148

AUBRIE WOODS

A graduate of USM's Master’s Program in Spiritual Psychology, a Certified SafeSpace trauma facilitator, and certified Theta Healer. Trained in pre-natal support, transformational parenting, pleasure mastery, relationship and intimacy coaching, chakra clearing, and Inquiry Method.

AubrieWoodsCoaching.com

NUTMEG’S OJAI HOUSE

Functional Art for Heart & Home - American MadeFair Trade - Psychic Tarot and Astrology Readers, Energy and Crystal Healings daily by appt. Walk-ins welcomed: Open daily 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 304 N. Montgomery Street OjaiHouse.com | 805-640-1656

DR. JOHN R. GALASKA

Dr. John R. Galaska, PsyD, BCN, Cht, university professor of Psychology, Neurofeedback, biofeedback, hypnosis for past troubling experiences and enhancing subjective life experience. BeCalmOfOjai.com facebook.com/BeCalmofOjai

805-705-5175

VIBRANT WELLNESS

MASSAGE

We bring a specialized massage that takes a holistic approach to treating stress in the body, all from the comfort of your home or office. With skillful hands & intuitive heart each session will unlock your inner Vibrant Wellness.

VibrantWellnessOjai.com

916.204.9691

ROXANNE ABELL

Certified Expressive Arts & Reiki practitioner utilizing Tarot, Shamanic & Tantric practices, performance, ritual & ceremony design to support holistic transformational healing for individuals & communities. Book sessions at: www. ariadnespassion.com

706.340.2692

LAUREL FELICE, LMT

Offers Swedish, deep tissue, reflexology, reiki, cranialsacral and pre and post natal massage with a reverent and joyous balance of hands and heart. laurelfelice54@gmail.com

805-886-3674

NAN TOLBERT

NURTURING CENTER

Pre-birth to 3; pre/post-natal wellbeing; infant/toddler development; parent education/support. BirthResource.org info@birthresource.org

805-646-7559

JULIE TUMAMAITSTENSLIE

Chumash Elder

Consultant • Storyteller • Spiritual Advisor • Workshops Weddings & Ceremonies

JTumamait@hotmail.com

805-701-6152

BY CHUCK GRAHAM

It strained mightily to get a whiff of me. The spring grasses were tall and lush, maybe standing at least 4 feet high in some regions of the Carrizo Plain National Monument. All I could see of this elusive American badger was its throat and the bottom of its black snout pointed skyward.

was standing on its stubby hind legs doing everything it could to make sense of what was plodding along at 10 mph in my truck as I have been known to do for the last 16 years on these dusty dirt roads and across these semi-arid grasslands.

When it finally had a sense of what I was, it got very low as badgers do, and like a lawnmower plowed over and through the towering grasses to its well concealed den on the high veld.

This was in April of 2010, during a Super Bloom. I didn’t see another cantankerous badger on the Carrizo Plain until the spring of 2020. I was working as a wildlife guide for a film crew for PBS that was creating a documentary on California wildlife and its wild places. The documentary was entitled Planet California. It was released in June 2022. Kit foxes, burrowing owls, giant kangaroo rats, antelope ground squirrels, coyotes, blunt-nose leopard lizards, and the American badger were high on their want list of subjects.

Towards the end of my 6-week gig, I was on the lookout for wildlife on the southeast fringe of Elkhorn Plain. I stumbled upon a badger foraging at dawn. It immediately began to run away on dusty Elkhorn Road. Making a broad arc it dove into one of its burrows dug out amongst the saltbush and green ephedra. Otherwise, the remote, semi-arid landscape was seemingly lifeless. the Carrizo Plain west of the Godwin Education Center at daybreak. It was bitterly cold when I saw a badger probably a mile out to the west. It loped along through grasses that were brown and low-growing, California suffering through yet another colossal drought.

I immediately called the film crew while I sat watching the den. Eight hours later, Mark Romanov, an accomplished wildlife cinematographer arrived. After setting up his film camera and camera traps, all we could do was watch and wait. And wait we did well into the night.

Fortunately, with his infrared camera gear, Romanov was able to locate not one, but two badgers poking their heads out of different nearby dens, using their advantageous subterranean way of life to give us the momentary slip. Crafty they are, and after a full 36 hours, Romanov only gathered a small amount of footage. For myself, I never even raised my camera. My quest for photographing them on the Carrizo Plain continued.

Whether it was running from the sight of me or something else I’ll never know, but it was gone before I knew it. Momentarily I thought about walking out there hoping for an opportunity, but out on the Carrizo Plain, I knew of other, more promising possibilities with other wildlife. That badger was long gone as I drove out to another overlook.

As my girlfriend Holly and I drove the winding road from King City to Pinnacles National Park in Central California, we enjoyed the rolling hills and chilly, early morning countryside leading into the craggy monoliths of the Gabilan Mountains. It was late April 2022.

We were hoping for decent looks at endangered California condors, a Pleistocene remnant clinging to patches of habitat in swaths of the western states.

As we meandered along, we rounded a sharp bend in the 2-lane road. It happened so fast, but we had just run over what was already a dead male badger. Even though it was another casualty of roadkill, we still felt terrible and pulled off the road. I ran up to it and removed it from the road. It was still intact and wasn’t bleeding, instead surrendering to severe blunt force trauma.

While staring into the glassy, lifeless eyes of this beautiful animal, I thought about how long I’d waited for a great look at a badger. I didn’t want it to be like this. It was a sad moment, so much wildlife lost on our roads.

On May 6, 2022, I gave two presentations on the Carrizo Plain, one for the Carrizo Colloquium and later in the day at the San Luis Obispo Botanical Gardens.

After I was finished, I thought it would be appropriate to drive out to those semi-arid grasslands off Highway 58. Somewhere along the way, I was to meet Romanov out on the Carrizo Plain.

He works regularly for National Geographic, the BBC, Shark Week, among others, and like me is always looking for more opportunities with wildlife.

It was approaching 11 pm when I received a text with coordinates from Romanov.

“I just spotted a female badger with two kits, said the hard-working Romanov. “I have some new tools.”

I had no idea what “new tools” meant, but just as I was about to pull off a nameless dirt road in the National Monument and snooze the rest of the night away, I now found myself driving madly to Romanov’s location about 20 miles south. He had entered the Carrizo Plain from the south, off Highway 166.

When I finally reached Romanov, he had pulled off along Soda Lake Road, getting his camera traps together. While he worked, he handed me a pair of binoculars.

“Just have a look out there,” he said plain enough. “Tell me what you see.”

What I saw was lots of activity, and the resolution viewed from the thermal binoculars brought the nighttime to life. Those optics were a game changer for locating wildlife that other- wise thoroughly enjoys their nocturnal advantages. I stopped counting Giant kangaroo rats at 19. Coyotes were spotted on the fringe of their activity. A pair of endangered kit foxes also kept moving through the food chain. However, our focus was on the badgers.

In the middle of all the nocturnal activity was the mother badger digging feverishly on a freshly dug mound. However, her main den with her two kits was about 100 feet to the south. That’s where Romanov set up his camera traps and infrared.

It was 1 am. We headed back to our trucks to sleep until 4 am. As soon as we wrestled out of our sleeping bags, we immediately utilized Romanov’s thermal binoculars. We were looking through them as we maneuvered into position. After approaching, we had the luxury of several saltbushes concealing us from a very busy mother badger. She was still digging, but for what?

It was still too dark to photograph her activity. All we could hope for was that she was still there when it got light enough. However, with those thermal binos we could at least keep tabs on her movements, which were devoted to what we thought was an alternate den site approximately 100 feet north of her main den.

As she dug, her pace was impressive as big, softball-sized clumps of dirt flew out from behind her. In between digging, she spun around looking in our direction. Romanov and I didn’t move. We didn’t make a sound. She knew something was nearby, but it wasn’t enough for her to go subterranean on us.

At 5:30 am it was just light enough to photograph her constant activity. Her black snout was smothered in freshly dug dirt. Her enormous claws never rested as she created a steep berm surrounding the opening.

As Romanov and I worked, there was movement just 30 feet to my right. Her two kits were above ground nuzzling each other, but never venturing any further than the circumference of their den. They weren’t up long but it was just enough time to fire off a few frames.

Turning our attention back to their mother, she had momentarily vanished below ground. The entire time we thought she was digging out a new den, but instead it was a California ground squirrel she was after. Once she secured it, she left to stash her prey for safe keeping. Badgers are known to hoard food in hidden places.

She didn’t travel far though. She quickly returned, digging, and rolling on the freshly dug dirt of what was the den of the California ground squirrel. After concealing that meal, she turned her attention toward us. For most of the next hour she slinked toward us for a look, a sniff, approaching to within 20 feet of us, but then returning to the freshly dug mound.

Finally, she low-crawled around to the west, watching us, rolling in the dirt, seemingly enjoying the morning sun. Then her motherly instincts settled in. Her kits were up, milling around the den. She joined them, with a conjoining of nuzzling, black button snouts.

Later in the day I got to see some of Romanov’s camera trap footage. The mother badger had been hunting all night. She brought her kits a giant kangaroo rat just before we arrived early that morning. She immediately went after the California ground squirrel, which required a lot of excavating.

It was 7:30 am when the family of badgers dove into their den for the day. It was a morning I will not soon forget. My quest to photograph badgers was finally successful. Nevertheless, I’ll always scan and watch for badgers, hoping for another opportunity, because it will never be enough.