Lover's Leap Loop, Hot Springs, NC

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
1/15/2022	4.7 miles	3 hours	1,038'	1.7 mph	25

Parking: NOC parking lot on Silvermine Road

Maps:

• 100 Favorite Trails of the Smokies and the Carolina Blue Ridge (for directions)
• Appalachian Trail Conservancy Tennessee-North Carolina Maps 3 & 4

Directions:

• See map

Carolina Mountain Club Challenges

• 100 Favorite Trails #41

We had time for a short hike today, so we headed over to Hot Springs to do this loop. The hike starts out on the AT, following the French Broad River. It was a cold and windy day, but we knew we'd soon be climbing and warming up. We've hiked this section of the Appalachian Trail before but haven't done the loop. It felt good to do the climbing on a cold day rather than the middle of the summer. It's a steep climb uphill (with switchbacks). There are a couple of nice lookouts over the French Broad.

If you want to know why it's called Lover's Leap, try googling. There are so many places named Lover's Leap, all with a similar story. It's quite amusing. Lover's Leap - Wikipedia

We continued hiking along a ridgeline and met a group of people. They asked us if they were near the summit. Or near the end. In these situations, I have to try really hard to refrain myself from saying - that the trail ends at the summit of Katahdin in Maine. If they keep hiking....

The trail descends into a gap, and from there we turned left on the Pump Gap Trail, a trail we've never taken. The Pump Gap Trail was a mess. Lots of down trees and rhododendrons blocking the trail. We had a storm with a lot of wind earlier this month, so it looks like it hit this area bad. I let our trail maintenance supervisor know - in case he can contact whoever maintains this trail. I'm not sure if it is even the Carolina Mountain Club that maintains it. We reached a campground area. Gaia made it look like our trail stayed on the left side of the stream, but honestly, we couldn't find where the trail continued. Our map instructions said to turn right onto a dirt road. We did see a dirt road across the stream, so we did cross the wide stream, finding a place where we could just barely keep our feet dry. We crossed it again later on. At the second crossing, we did see the Pump Gap trail to the left of us. From there we walked down the road back to the NOC parking area.