First Hop refers to your signal to the 'thing' your craft is directly connected to (can be DSN stations on Kerbin, or some relay satellite), while 'Path' is every 'hop' to connect to Kerbin. If you're connected directly to a DSN station on Kerbin, then your first hop is the whole path. If your only connection to Kerbin is through relay satellites, then Path will show every link between you and Kerbin while First Hop only shows your immediate connection to that relay satellite. I hope that explains it well enough.
OrdinaryKerman's post in Unknown mod/setting requiring me to "build a ground station" was marked as the answer