Karen and I hiked the Lover’s Leap Loop in Hot Springs today. It’s a short segment of the Appalachian Trail which I’ve always wanted to see. The AT actually runs through the middle of town, so it’s safe to say that Hot Springs is even more of a hiker’s town than Ashville.

The trail is famously marked by white trail blazes.

We parked in town and walked across the bridge spanning the French Broad River to reach the trailhead. The trail followed the river for a bit before climbing up to Lover’s Leap. Like my trail run the other day, there were very few flowers among the greenery. We saw mostly the same plants.

The Lyreleaf sage is very pretty in a sea of green. And there were more Mountain Laurels.

This Virginia Spiderwort was new for me to see on the trail. Of course, we saw a million plants yesterday as part of touring the gardens at the Biltmore Estate. Vanderbilt had one heck of a backyard. Tomorrow, I’m taking Karen for a hike on the Hard Times Loop I ran earlier this week. We’re getting in some quality outdoors time in the Blue Ridge Mountains.