If you got to read yesterday’s blog, you saw a recipe for a romantic day hike. We did that hike! And it was very satisfying for both of us. I highly recommend some variation of it and would like to share more information about that hike with you today and tomorrow.

If you look up Percy Warner in Nashville TN, nashville.gov has a pretty informative page under parks and recreation. Edwin and Percy Warner Parks are managed by the Metropolitan Board of Parks and Recreation. They cover 2,684 acres and it’s just 9 miles from downtown Nashville.

We get to it by getting off of I-65 south at Old Hickory Blvd West. We followed that for 5.3 miles and turned right on Chickering Rd. Then we turned left into the park after being on Chickering Rd for .6 miles. Here is what the sign looks like.

It feels a little like you are going into the golf course. At .2 miles into the park you will cross an unidentified road and go for .2 more miles. Here you will turn left and this is what the sign looks like.

It is a narrow road that does have two way traffic and will take you to Indian Springs Shelter #4 in .5 miles. The shelter is within a few yards of 36.065810, -86.884202 lat/long.  You will pass three other shelters but this one is closest to the trail and at the end of the road. Someone could come and park right behind the shelter because there is one more back in the woods about 60 yards back. The road is cabled and the shelter is not listed on the website as a place you can reserve but two cars drove past to take a look.

Nov 1 is the start of the first come first serve season and there is no fee. Up until Oct 31 there are $30, $50, and $100 rental options. 4 of these 5 shelters have a fire place.

We got to the shelter around 12:00 noon and left all of our meal and fire supplies at the shelter and struck out for a list of short trails that would make a circle starting and ending at the back of the shelter.  It was so pretty and ended up being 1.4 miles. 

When we go back to this section of the park again we won’t start at this point or do this loop quite like this because some of it said horse trail only. We  found the horse trail only sign at an intersection about .6 of a mile in…

When we got back to the shelter, there was still time for more walking so we went exploring. After walking out toward the exit on the blacktop for about .2 miles, we came up on a makeshift entrance to the Percy Warner Horse Trail. It looked like we could use it as a quick way to Mossy Ridge Trail which is a hiking trail. Sure enough, .2 miles alone we came up o Mossy Ridge Trail and we followed it for .9 miles. When it crossed a picturesque narrow blacktop, we got on the blacktop and hiked 1.5 miles back to the shelter.

The wind was blowing gently and the colorful leaves were dancing and chasing each other through the trees to see who could get to the ground the fastest.  It rained lightly for a little while, but we were prepared. We snacked on Isagenix Lemon Food bars as we walked and drank lots of water. We talked a lot about the future, plans for the week and how grateful we are that God put us together.

Stay tuned tomorrow for how we used a beach cabana at the fireplace to make a cozy spot…