I ended with almost 220 miles for the month, was fighting a cold/sick for part of a week and we had bad weather for about a 10 day period that I didn't ride at all.

Today was a highlight, one of my best rides to date. I met a friend for a ride we do several times throughout summer but it was the first time we had ridden this year, in fact first time I'd seen him since we rode last summer. The ride is through a mountain park area, a road that runs along a creek until it flows into the river. Then a gravel road follows along side the river into the town of Hot Springs NC. For a short time the Appalachian Trail comes out of the mountains and hikers have to cross the river on the bridge coming out of the town.

We stopped to talk to people 3 or 4 times during the 25 miles (1150' of elevation gain) which ended up taking almost 2 1/2 hours but it was great fun. Crossing the river bridge we met a hiker who we stopped to talk to. He planning to hike the whole AT which is about 2200 miles and will take ~6 months. Really cool guy, just heading back onto the trail after resupplying and spending the night in town. At one of the intersections 3 dual sport riders were stopped looking at maps, we ended up talking to those guys for quiet awhile. My buddy told them about some other options to connect trails (he knows the mountain trails well) that's not on maps. We stopped to take pictures once and some near by campers walked over to chat for a few.

Just all and all an excellent ride, maybe I ride solo too much.