A covered bridge that serves as "a focal point" for guests using Wren's Nest Bed & Breakfast's walking trail.

RUSSELLVILLE – In addition to beds and breakfast, Tom and Judith Hoover, the operators of Wren’s Nest Bed & Breakfast, offer something many other B&Bs don’t: a large garden and two miles of walking trails.

In a heavily wooded area between Auburn and Russellville, a garden lies between the Hoovers’ home and Wren’s Nest itself, a two-story building with two bedrooms.

Sitting in the shade of a gazebo in the middle of the garden, the Hoovers said they opened Wren’s Nest in 2007 because they wanted to stay connected to the outside world after retirement.

“(It’s) just to have some contact with the public,” Tom Hoover said.

“As you can see, we’re out here in the middle of nowhere,” Judith Hoover added.

Their decision to open a bed and breakfast was based partly on their experience staying at other such facilities through the years.

“We stay in B&Bs when we go places,” Tom Hoover said. “We like to go up to the (Great American Brass Band Festival) in Danville, and we always stay in a B&B when we can up there, and we had such a good time doing it that we just continued over and over for a number of years.”

Tom Hoover has been an avid gardener since the 1970s, so incorporating his passion for gardening into Wren’s Nest felt like a natural progression, Judith Hoover said.

“When we had the excuse of people who like gardens coming here, it just expanded,” she said. “This used to be a vegetable garden.”

“This used to be corn and potatoes out here,” Tom Hoover added.

Through the years, many guests have enjoyed the walking trail, which loops through the woods that cover the bulk of the Hoovers’ property, Tom Hoover said.

“It’s like a figure-eight and right in the center of the figure-eight there’s a covered bridge on the trail and the covered bridge is a focal point so nobody gets lost,” he said.

Guests enjoy the chance to get outdoors, Tom Hoover said.

“We had the trails for ourselves initially and we just learned that a number of people like, especially people that live in cities, like to get out in the wild and we have all sorts of critters living here,” he said. “I tell people if you hear on CNN that there’s buffalo in Kentucky, they’d probably be right here.”

The Hoovers’ property also features a small body of water where guests can fish that formed as a result of the Mud River being dammed.

Judith Hoover said the Wren’s Nest has had guests from seven foreign countries, including China, Belgium and Japan, and “probably 48 or 50 states.”

“Oftentimes we are in the middle between Chicago and Florida or anywhere in the north,” she said. “They look us up online, try to find a place that’s reasonable in the middle of their trip and end up here.”

Judith Hoover said they didn’t know what to expect when they first opened Wren’s Nest, but they’ve been surprised by the interest they’ve received and the customers they’ve had.

I don’t know that we had any expectations really,” she said. “We’ve been so pleasantly surprised at the people who have come.”

– Follow Daily News reporter Jackson French on Twitter @Jackson_French or visit bgdailynews.com.