I woke up Thursday morning and as soon as I moved to sit up, the whole world started spinning and wouldn’t stop. I was experiencing an intense bout of vertigo- I soon became nauseous and was dry-heaving on my hands and knees outside the tent. It took me two hours to pack up camp. I was wobbly on the bike, so I walked it up to Tunnel View to see if I could get a ride up the hill.
Enter Layton. He was on his way to hike out at Glacier Point and stopped to text his wife at the Tunnel View turnout. He graciously offered to take me to Wawona. At the store, I hung out for a couple hours, asking for a ride from a few people, but got no takers. I kept drinking and eating and decided to try to ride. Although still a little dizzy, I was better than earlier. I climbed up to the Mariposa Grove and South Entrance. The line of cars to get in to the park was over a mile long!
I passed the Tenaya Lodge, where Stephanie and I have stayed, then began a mostly downhill ride to Oakhurst. After another break I decided to head out toward the San Joaquin Valley and take a day off. It was a harrowing ride on the 41, with an intermittently disappearing shoulder and lots of traffic. Up and down and on and off the road due to traffic, I finally reached the intersection of the 41 and the 145 as the sun was going down. Javier pulled over and told me he was on his way into Madera, so I hitched a ride and found a room. I was exhausted, but the dizziness had slowly receded throughout the day.
I woke up the next morning with the room spinning all over again. I holed up for the day and again, my equilibrium slowly stabilized as the day went on. It wasn’t as bad as yesterday, and hopefully it will be better tomorrow. I’m guessing I might have an inner ear infection. Makes for miserable touring.