Pretty bridges, interesting wildlife, but problematic after a rain

This was a nice, long trail with some pretty, forested bits, but we went astray right after crossing the Hoxie Bridge (take an IMMEDIATE right, even though the trail also continues straight ahead).  Also, lots of little temporary springs had sprung to life, so parts of the trail were a muddy mess.

On the plus side, there is a good bit of shade, the many bridges that cross little runnels and ravines are neat, and there are mile markers every1/10 mile (starting after the Hoxie Bridge :-(  ).  The park staff were very helpful--as they had no maps on hand, they drove out from the main office 15 min away to bring us some.

But the biggest drawback was at marker ~2.7--a big slough kind of thing crosses the path, and we couldn't find a way around it. You can follow what looks like a utility right-of-way up to a Jeep track, so we did that for a while, but it never rejoined the trail proper, and there was a lot of shooting going on (from hunting, not drug deals gone wrong), so we gave up and turned around.  This area was also thick with litter washed in with the rains, unlike the rest of the trail, which was quite clean.

Even so, it made for a good, long hike (especially with our wrong turn after the HB), and all the up-and-downing through the ravines gave us quite the workout.  Also, we saw 10 white-tailed deer, and a big black boar went crashing through the forest about 40 feet in front of us.  Much excitement.