“Some people say the only way you really train for a thru-hike is you get out there and do it,” hiker, Slow Burn.

Late in the summer of 2025, Santa Cruz County’s native son, Jared Perry, had accomplished something only 700 people in the world had done. Jared had completed thru-hiking three of America’s most noteworthy and notorious trails, and by doing so, received the Triple Crown award.

The Triple Crown is the Heisman Trophy of thru-hikers, and the Stanley Cup of trail blazers. It means you walked, from start to finish, the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), the Continental Divide Trail (CDT), and the Appalachian Trail (AT).

It’s not difficult to imagine that for most Americans, thinking about taking six months off, to walk from Mexico to Canada, is put into the category of: impossible. But for the wide array of people who do it, or attempt it, impossible is just another day on the trail.

MAVERICK

Jared Perry was born in San Jose, but don’t hold that against him. His father Mike, was a member of the Carpenters Local Union 405. In between working full-time, Mike began building a home for his family in Aptos, where they relocated when Jared was five years old.

By his own account, Jared was a hyperkinetic kid growing up who got involved in whatever he could find that involved motion.

 “I played soccer, baseball, and football,” he says. ‘When I got to Aptos High School, my sport was skateboarding, which was not looked at as a sport back then. But now it’s in the Olympics.”

His easy laughter is something that makes others feel comfortable. The 41-year-old has a thoughtful, inviting, and kind disposition. But Jared’s easy-going nature camouflages his intense drive and passion. Often organizing large groups of friends for backpacking adventures and foraging in every shrubbery for potential edible greens, his life, when he has a choice, takes place outside.

“I was carried up Mt. Shasta as an infant. So I guess that qualifies as my first hike,” says Jared.

LODGE POLE

His father Mike’s branch of the Perry family has always embraced the outdoors with gusto, making it an important, essential part of one’s upbringing and experience. With an intergenerational family cabin deep in the woods of Northern California (laid waste in 2021 by the Dixie Fire), hiking, and being amongst the Red Fir and Mountain Hemlock, was as common as shared meals around the dining room table.

Mike Perry is a big guy, and has the body of a man who did physical labor his entire life. But, he also possesses an extremely clever mind that seeks out facts about the world, where he then begins cataloguing information, savoring on the details, and sussing out how to build it, find it or make it happen. What today is called rabbit-holing and homesteading

In 2012, just a few years into retirement, Mike was investigating online about the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) and one thing that stood out was that the halfway point was at the family mountain cabin. “I’ve been hacking portions of the Pacific Crest Trail with my folks growing up, and my family. Jared and I were hiking a section of the PCT and he had mentioned that it would be nice to do some overnight backpacking and do a larger section. So that prompted me to get on the internet and see what was out there. I discovered a long distance hiking group. I initially thought that if I trained myself enough, I could do half of it,” says Mike who completed the entire PCT.

“His idea was, wouldn’t it be cool to start in Mexico at the border and hike all the way to the cabin? The more research he did about the trail, he found it was way more expansive than he thought. It went all the way to Canada,” Jared recalls.

Eventually, Mike asked Jared if he wanted to do this walk as a joint venture. A father and son bonding experience. An Amazing Race where the prize was companionship and adventure.  And there were strong reasons to do it as a team, they reasoned. Number one was safety. They knew they wouldn’t be alone on the trail. There would be other people on the trail. A lot of other people, as it turns out.

TRAIL NAMES

Another aspect of this micro-culture is that when one is on the trail, one adopts, or is given, a trail name. Jared accepted the Triple Crown as Maverick, a name given to him when he played a season on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk volleyball team. “I was afraid of getting a crappy name,” Jared admits.

Mike walked as Lodge Pole, a name given to him by his daughter.

  “So that was Jessica. It wasn’t given to me by a hiker, which is traditional for the trail names. Jesse and I have done plenty of hiking, so I feel like it was appropriate. I was thinking of other names like Warner Valley or Chester. Jessica abruptly said, ‘No, it’s not going to be Chester,’ though, I still think that’s logical, because Chester is where the cabin was,” Mike laughs.

On the trail, you might meet people who go by the names of Shroomer, Jester, Huff and Puff, Weathercarrot, Big Stick, Ratatouille, Breezeway and Kismet.

SLOW BURN

Eric Rupp is another local trail enthusiast who began his first hike in 2023. At 63-years old, Rupp was fresh off a deep recent trauma. He had precious little backpacking experience. What he did have was a desire to do something that would push his personal boundaries. So he decided to walk 7,000 miles.

 “A lot of people on the trail, when you talk to them, and you do get a chance to do that, they’re going through changes in their lives,” says Rupp.  “The hike doesn’t represent a ‘period’ in their lives, it represents a ‘comma’. It was the same for me. I was leaving a marriage. A long-term marriage. I basically had an opportunity to run away and join the circus. So I took it.”

Rupp is a section hiker. Like many others who cannot take the time to do the entire six month walk, Rupp would hike parts of the trail at different times. In 2023, Rupp began the PCT in April. But by June, the higher altitudes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range became impassable.

“2023 was the biggest snow year since the Donner Party in the Sierras. That’s just the way it panned out, much to everyone’s shock and awe. And so what that meant for most mortal humans is that you’d hike from the Mexican border, through the desert, and up to the Sierras, which basically was Kennedy Meadows South,” Rupp recalls.

When Rupp started walking the trails, he would often get as far in one month, as younger hikers would get to in two weeks, which is when he received his trail name, Slow Burn.  “I came back knowing things that I didn’t know about, and that changed my life,” Rupp says.

And there you have it. Besides the rigor and the internal fortitude of thru-walkers, there’s something less apparent and more transcendent happening on the trails of America. People are returning to peak physical movement, walking and snowshoeing through pristine nature, in order to heal what ails them. It’s an American Walkabout. John Muir and Henry David Thoreau’s ghosts are acting as sherpas and emotional midwives to those seeking completion of their soul on the trail.

MICRO WEENIES

You’ve decided that your goal is to join the 0.000175% of the population and earn your Triple Crown. Once you get a grasp on a general direction of where you will be walking for the next six months, and your physical and mental training is in motion, one of the biggest “to-do” items is to get your backpack to weigh as little as possible. That starts with obtaining ultralight gear and eliminating all ‘gram weenies’ as they are called within the tribe. “Removing tags off clothing, buttons that you don’t need on shirts, and if the zipper is not needed, it’s got to go,” says Jared.

The gremlins of long-distance hikers are the extra pounds of gear that you have on your back. Sleeping bag, snow shoes, poncho, thermals, and toiletries. It’s a much longer list. Each extra ounce can feel like a pound after just 10 miles. Jared would dry out his toothpaste and, using a carpenter’s razor blade, carve out thin slices for his travels. Mini green Chiclets for good dental hygiene, whilst in the middle of nowhere.

Slow Burn says: “My gear was bona fide ultra light. So my base weight was around 13 to 14 pounds. And then you add food and water. So, at the heaviest, it would be seven days of food, and that’s 14 more pounds. Now I’m up to 28lbs. Add 3 liters of water and now I’m up to 34lbs. But most of the time I’m hiking lighter than that. There’s no reason to carry more weight than you need.”

Jared says: “My pack ended up with the food and water being 45 lbs. Which is really heavy by today’s standards. So with all the work I had done, and all the diligence of dehydrating toothpaste, I still ended up carrying 45 lbs. And then I started shedding what I didn’t need and ended up at about 30 or 35 lbs.”

TRAIL ANGELS

There’s a large load of decisions and determinations to consider when doing a long thru-hike. And all of it is woven together with a tremendous amount of hope, and fingers crossed. One thing that keeps hikers supported, and in some instances alive, are the Trail Angels. At one point, an unorganized group of good Samaritans who would leave much-needed water at certain junctures, or catch thru-hikers when they made visits to towns, and welcome them in like the weary travelers they are.

For Maverick and Lodge Pole, those angels started back at home in Corralitos, where Mike’s wife, Cindy, and his daughter, Jessica, led a detailed, often comically dramatic routine of assembling much-needed care packages. The packages were sent ahead to strategic towns that the duo would eventually walk through.

COYOTE

Jared had heard of Coyote before they met. “I knew she was a legend,” he says gleefully. “I actually saw her during the early part of the Pacific Crest Trail. My dad and I stopped into a trail angel’s house to do laundry, and that night around a bonfire, I saw her. I recognized her from the movies,” says Jared.

Coyote is a celebrity amongst the in-the-know thru-hikers. Appearing in several documentaries about trail life, Coyote is a no-nonsense, adventuresome, experience-seeking, ball of energy with boundless inspiration. And while she seeks no acclaim, her written diary of life on the trail is exquisite.

“Because we’ve been walking south with fall, a beautiful carpet of autumn leaves covers the ground. This, too, slows us, because the crunchy leaves hide all the nooks and crevices between the rocks. But it sure makes for gorgeous days in the woods. Under the canopy, everything seems brighter – golden and glowing. The ‘green tunnel’ has become a golden tunnel. It’s pure enjoyment. From the ankles up,” Coyote wrote in October of 2024, somewhere in Pennsylvania.

In the long-distance hiking world, Coyote is known as a repeat offender. “So I had hiked the Appalachian Trail (AT) first in 2004,” Coyote recalls with ease.  “The PCT in 2008, the CDT in 2012, and then another long-distance trail called the Pacific Northwest Trail in 2016, and that was right before I met Maverick at a hiker gathering.  We sort of met each other and decided, ‘Oh, you’re really cool. But bye. I got to go. I signed a contract,” says Coyote with a wink.

While Coyote worked for a year in Antarctica, as a field coordinator for scientists, Jared was building homes in the Bay Area (and still pondering) his Triple Crown. The potential relationship had been back-burnered.

The two stayed in touch, and started dating in 2019. They found out about the Great North American Eclipse, a unique planetary experience best viewed in Maine in late 2023, and made a plan. “Why not tack on a six month walk to a five minute experience,” Coyote quips.

“We went to Maine to see the eclipse. But because it was April and May and we didn’t want to start in that kind of climate, we flew down to DC and got on the Appalachian Trail in the middle and hiked it in what we call a flip-flop. Which is in two parts. We went from basically the middle of the trail down to the southern terminus in Georgia. Then we flew up to Maine and we hiked South from the northern terminus down to the middle. And, that’s how we did it. We also knew this would qualify Maverick for the Triple Crown,” Coyote relates, obviously relishing the details.

FAMILY DUO

As much as Jared enjoyed hiking with his father, or the solitude of hiking solo, or even with new trail friends, when asked the best thing about doing the AT (and completing the Triple Crown) was, “To be able to hike it with my partner,” Jared replied. 

 “We already knew some of our capabilities. How far we could go, and what we could do together. We’ve been trail-tested as a couple. A lot of couples don’t hike together. We walk at the same pace. So, we get to walk together, and it’s comfortable. So many people don’t have the same pace, and if you’re off by a little bit, after 10 miles, you end up really far apart from each other.

“By comfortably hiking at the same pace, we got to point things out to each other. And I think my most memorable time on the trail was walking south through the fall, the color change in New England. We had a whole month of walking through a rainbow forest with crunchy leaves underneath our feet.”

On the trail, self-realizations abound, relationships with others are strengthened, bonds are forged, some find love, and some look for Bigfoot.

SQUATCH

Scott Herriott, trail name Squatch, loves making documentaries about thru-trail hikers, as well as the elusive search for the long-rumored Sasquatch. His film The Flip Flop Flipping Trilogy, about the AT, and Still Walking, about the PCT, are perfectly captured moments in linear space, of perhaps the most American tradition of all time, walking in nature. Of course, he also made Asquatchalypse Now ( a documentary about. . .you know) and Unverified (his first feature available on Amazon Prime).

“I’ve done both the AT and the PCT,” Herriott begins. He talks fast, his mind divergently landing on several topics at once.

 “I’m at best a mediocre hiker. I’m basically a section hiker. I completed those trails in chunks. I met Coyote in ’08 when I was doing my fourth and final film about the PCT. She was part of Team Bad Wizard. Shane ‘Jester’ O’Donnell was also making a film that year of his thru hike (Wizards of the PCT). I was doing the remaining 1,400 miles that I needed to do to complete the PCT. And Coyote ended up being in both of our films,” Herriott says.

There must be some sort of energy that flows through the primal forests, mountains and landscapes across America. Because certain hikers seem to symbiotically harness a different mode of energy that breaks them apart and brings them together again, like waves upon the shore.

INJURIES

Through all the tales of healing, and wonderment and magic – walking 8,000 miles, in snowstorms, deserts, lightning strikes and flash flooding doesn’t happen without some missteps and hopefully, narrowly averted tragedies.

Jared began the idea of thru-hiking with one singular thought, “I wanted to avoid a serious injury. I knew I would push through it, but when I actually did get an injury, it was a lot harder to push through than I had thought. But it was really rewarding,” he says.

Taking a three-year break after completing the PCT, Mike, then 61, and Jared, 30, were planning to conquer the CDT. They started together in 2016, but only Jared completed the trip.

At one point on the CDT, close to the border of Colorado, in a privy in lower Lagunitas Campground, Jared and Mike, now fully in Maverick and Lodge Pole mode, found a lost camper who had died of exposure and starvation. Stephen “Otter” Olshansky had gone missing months before and ended up barricaded in a campground bathroom, until the end.

It wasn’t a sign, or a potent omen, but something unplanned for was just up ahead.

Mike says: “So on the CDT I made about one-third. I had done about 1,000 miles of a 3,000 mile trail. The higher elevation was messing with some medication that I was on. I felt sick. But more so, I felt homesick. I missed my wife’s retirement party. On the CDT it’s hard to get phone reception and my body was falling apart. I lost 25 pounds. I just wanted to get home to my wife.”

Jared completed the final 2000 miles, solo.

END OF THE TRAIL

It has been said that walking the trail warps time. You wake up, pack up your camp’s debris and detritus, and start walking, again. You’re Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. Besides breaks to pee, or for taking a breather, or to catch an eye-popping vista, you’re constantly in motion. Everything you see is fresh and novel. You hear new sounds like Mormon Crickets and dippers, wrens, finches and warblers. Time begins to stretch out. Six months on the trail, they say, begins to feel like years. You begin to feel like you are really milking the most you can get out of life. You feel robust and healthy. Tomorrow you’ll walk another 12 hours.

The trickster, Coyote, has other thoughts. “The trail warps time? Initially, that was also my feeling, in the beginning, when I started thru-hiking. But I feel like the so-called ‘real world’ is what has warped our perception of time. The trail is actually you tapping into something that is more real, more natural, more in circadian rhythm, more biological, and more intrinsic to us as human beings,” Coyote laughs before walking off to her newest adventure.

This summer, Maverick and Coyote and Squatch are going to walk Patagonia.

Squatch’s documentaries are available at squatchfilms.com and Jester’s documentaries can be found at tbwproductions.com

READ ON! Our Health & Fitness issue awaits:

It’s a Beautiful Race: the 16th annual She Is Beautiful 5K/10K Run

Not Just a Gym: Santa Cruz Core Fitness and Rehab and Athletic Club

It starts on Bay Avenue, goes along West Cliff Drive and makes a keyhole loop before returning to the Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse. Of course, we’re talking about the 16th annual She Is Beautiful 5K/10K Run, which cruises into Santa Cruz on Saturday, May 9.

With the race just a few months away, spring is already in the air for runners, walkers, joggers and stroller pushers, as four more trainings and meetups precede the race day: Wednesday, January 21st 7 pm at Fleet Feet Aptos; Saturday, February 21, 8 am at Fleet Feet Monterey; Saturday, March 7, 8 am at REI in Berkeley; and Sunday, April 19, 8 am at Verve Coffee, Seabright location. No registration is needed, just show up.

She Is Beautiful has evolved from 500 people in 2011 to 6,000 in 2025, and added a second race in Santa Barbara. She is Beautiful was founded and is directed by sisters Melissa McConville and Sara Marie Tanza with a mission “to get people moving forward physically, emotionally and spiritually.”

The Jan. 21 session includes a presentation by the Hoka shoe company and a run. “We welcome every level,” McConville added. “We normally plan a route, always routes that are easy, safe. You are not required to stay in a pace group.”

Anyone who registers for the race is invited to attend a free, 90-minute yoga session March 29 in the Warriors stadium. This year will be a candlelit flow led by Hannah Muse.

“We want it to be more than just a race,” said McConville.  “We want it to really feel like a community space where people can show up wherever they are. We welcome strollers.”

Both races finish at the lighthouse, which is also the site of a post-race festival. The 10K extends up into Natural Bridges, “which is so beautiful,” McConville says.

She is Beautiful is in a partnership with the Walnut Avenue Women and Family Center, a public benefit organization dedicated to improving quality of life for women, children and families. SIB has donated over $200,000 to the center. Registration to SIB is now open and includes access to all pre-event race activities, a cute race T-shirt or tank top, access to the post-race festival and free race photos. Register for She is Beautiful at runsheisbeautiful.com

When people think of a gym, they often picture muscle-bound bodybuilders lifting stacks of weights, waiting for that one popular machine, or rooms jammed with treadmills and stationary bikes… but there are plenty of other options in Santa Cruz.

Providing a bridge between a traditional gym and alternative health care, spaces like Santa Cruz Core Fitness and Rehab and Athletic Club Santa Cruz blend fitness, medical and day spa all under one roof. This is a new and vital trend, as folks are discovering treatments usually reserved for a medical clinic, such as regenerative Platelet-rich Plasma (PRP), stem cell therapy and mental health therapy, in the same spaces as weight training, yoga and health coaching.

As January arrived and New Year’s resolutions abounded, I resolved to add something new to my fitness routine, which until now, was primarily yoga and walking on the beach. I started my New Year’s wellness journey with a consultation downtown at Santa Cruz Core Fitness & Rehab. With both one-on-one private and semi-private classes, the first thing I noticed at the downtown wellness center is no crowds, just a handful of private clients, each engaged in a different modality. While one person was working with weights in the downstairs studio, another was getting a sports massage, and a third was getting acupuncture in a private room.

For more than 17 years, owner Jami Jansen has led a dedicated team helping patients to reduce pain, restore mobility and improve overall health.

For Jansen, the path to wellness started with a bike accident many years ago when she was hit by a car while biking at UCSC, suffering a ruptured disc and traumatic brain injury. After the injury, she learned first-hand how professional treatment sought early can make a big difference in outcomes and reduce the risk of serious health issues down the line.

 “We started as a preventative treatment center, and now we are doing pre- and post-operative work,” she says. “Instead of going to medical school, I hired experts to help. We take a holistic approach to health and wellness, whether someone is rehabbing from an injury or training for the Olympics.”

My consultation included in-body analysis, which calculates a basal metabolic weight, considered more accurate than a Body Mass Index (BMI). Jansen asked about my health goals, past injuries and trouble areas. I explained that I had degenerative rotator cuff pain and recurring knee pain.

Armed with results of my posture and movement assessment, the fun part begins: selecting both traditional and alternative treatments to address my chronic pain, osteoarthritis and injury recovery. Following are some of the treatments I tried or may try in the future.

Red Light therapy is a way to reduce fine lines and boost cellular regeneration. It is FDA-cleared and proven to stimulate collagen production, which can lead to faster wound healing and improve skin’s elasticity. It also claims to boost energy, improve blood flow and calm inflammation, says Janson.

As for reducing fine lines, I did notice an immediate improvement and overall brighter complexion after only 20 minutes under the Red Vive 300 light panel. Treatments start at $25 and include a workout session on a Vasper bike.

Unlike UVA light, Red Light Therapy is not damaging to the skin and can treat many conditions, including acne, wrinkles, hair loss, and joint and muscle pain. It is also “good for eyes, skin and gum disease,” saysCamille Perriat, co-owner of Athletic Club Santa Cruz with husband Chris Ellis.

ACSC offers a full-spectrum red light bed and the RedRoom + heated studio classes. Walking into the club’s Recovery Lounge, visitors can access both private or small group spaces, dry stone sauna and cold plunges.

“We have the biostacking fiber acoustic lounge with a red light canopy for those beneficial rays,” Perriat says. The facility also has two hard-shell hyperbaric oxygen chambers.

For an extra chill, the Snow Shower at ACSC blasts chilled, “really cold water” from above which lasts about 30 seconds.

The workout. At Core Fitness, there is onlyone bike. The Vasper (vascular performance) is a seated elliptical with three modalities: cooling, compression and grounding. The cooling and compression work with the goal of pushing muscles to failure and creating lactic acid, which creates human growth hormone (HGH). Riding a Vasper involves pedaling on copper plates to create grounding and draw out impurities. Twenty-one minutes on the Vasper is purported to produce hormone recovery benefits equivalent to a 2-hour workout, Jansen said.

After the initial assessment, Santa Cruz Core personal trainer Guy Ferreira walked me through an exercise regimen to address my osteoarthritis and leg syndrome. Ferreira says he trains about 12 people weekly. He designed a fun program using lacrosse balls to loosen quads and hip resistance bands, small hand weights and a dome-shaped Bosu Ball.

ACSC offers a full gym floor with premium equipment and includes kick boxing, yoga and circuit training in its heated Red Room. Perriat says: “Yoga has a much different feel, heated with infrared heat and humidity.”

“The Soft Tissue Lounge with Normatec compression is great for lymphatic drainage,” Perriat added. “It feels like you’re getting an amazing foot massage.”

Among the workout options are Keiser pneumatic resistance machines for smooth, joint-friendly training, and five stations to work out muscle soreness. “All of our members have access to this. It’s used constantly … and “great for muscle soreness and tissue release.” Personal trainers are available for biomechanical consultations and metabolic testing to optimize cardio output.

Acupuncture adventure

I showed up at Santa Cruz Core eager for my first-ever acupuncture treatment, albeit a bit nervous. As a form of Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture purports to relieve acute tissue damage by identifying markers which send out signals for help. As the immune system kicks in and nerve signals are processed, the patient receives hormonal regulation.

Acupuncturist Amberlee Gustafson calmed my qualms right away. The single-use needles are tiny .14 to .25 mm, and often undetectable. A board-certified Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine with more than 3,000 hours of clinical training at Five Branches University, Gustafson  focused treatment on chronic muscle pain areas, such as wrist flexion, the aforementioned shoulder, and a knee and hip diagnosed with Patello-femoral Temporal Pain Syndrome. I didn’t notice any significant improvement after one session, so I booked five more sessions. After my third treatment, my shoulder pain had cleared considerably and range of motion improved.

Sports Chiro-therapy

Chiropractic medicine is widely-known for spine decompression, but there is so much more to this approach to spine and musculoskeletal disorders. Dr. Rhodes Walton is a sports chiropractor who uses assessment-based tools to pinpoint pain and create an intense but effective means to release soft tissue known as Sports Chiro-therapy at Santa Cruz Core Fitness. Each program is informed by the individual’s body movement.

Adjustment and soft tissue release is the majority tool of sports chiro-therapy, along with corrective exercise, Walton explained. “The treatment is influenced by how your body moves,” Walton said. “I wanted to get a more dynamic approach to help with soft tissue function. Adjustment is part of the protocol.” I felt a little sore after this treatment and I didn’t feel any different.

Corrective Exercise & Rehab Beau Jansen is an advanced elite personal trainer and fitness director at Santa Cruz Core, trained in Hanson Muscle Therapy method, a trigger point therapy informed by how your body moves. “It’s like acupressure mixed with a little art and moves along the meridian lines,” he said. A mix of active release therapy and physical therapy, HMT emphasizes the parasympathetic nervous system for a balance of rest and digest to achieve optimal benefits.

Two massage therapists are on hand at Athletic Club Santa Cruz, offering a variety of massages, including deep tissue, relaxation and therapeutic massage.

From Medical Aesthetics to Mental Health

State-of-the-art health therapies co-exist with physical fitness at both facilities. Santa Cruz Core offers Xeomin injection, prolotherapy, rejuvenative Platelet-rich Plasma (PRP) “super healthy for injury prevention” Jami says, and stem cell therapy for bone repair, cartilage and ligaments. Injection of PRP helps create blood flow and bring blood to non-vascular tissues, she said.

Santa Cruz Core accepts most major health insurance. They also offer wellness treatment for various disorders such as anxiety, depression and addiction recovery as well as Ketamine therapy.

ACSC offers medical procedures as well, including full blood work, hormone therapy, peptide therapy, vitamin shots and B12.

Another local option, Dr. John Grady’s Harbor Health Center, provides a full line of weight loss, aesthetic and rejuvenative services including weight loss peptides, microneedling and PRP injections. I tried the facial micro-needling treatment with PRP, also known as the “vampire facial” because it harvests your own stem cells drawn from your own blood. I don’t want to use any artificial fillers or ingredients. This process speeds healing from the microneedle injuries and reduces recovery time from about 5 days to 1 or 2 days. I am making this one a regular part of my wellness routine.

Santa Cruz Core Fitness & Rehabilitation, S315 Potrero St., Ste. C Santa Cruz 831-425-9500

Harbor Health Center, 4450 Capitola Rd., 831-278-8800

Athletic Club at Santa Cruz, 901 Soquel Ave., 831-425-4653