Amazing area! Whole crystal river valley rocks! Beware that trail is ONLY maintained to Hell Roaring Creek about 2.2 miles in and very pretty.
UNMAINTAINED/OVERGROWN TRAIL AFTERWARDS! ALL SIDE TRAILS ID IMAGINE ARE UNMAINTAINED TO NON-EXISTENT - EXPERIENCED BACKPACKERS ONLY FOR SAFETY! Hell Roaring Trail heard mixed reviews, near 4,000 ft elevation up from Av Creek Tr.
At Gift Creek (6ish miles in) are 100+ downed trees with 5-10 tricky tree crossings and on switchbacks if backpacking or equestrian. I backpacked down from Capital Lake to Avalache Lake then down to Av TH/CG. I have bumps, bruises, scrapes and low morale going from Av Lake to Gift Creek section.
Heard a story that the Equestrian group from Carbondale made it up to the Lake and one of their horses got scraped/injured due to terrain/downed tree obstacles. That same horse group unfortunately left trash in their fire ring and horse poop all over a nice campsite which i cleaned up! Please pack out/leave no trace, despite how low morale is.
If it's raining or has in the last 24 hours the dirt road up to the trailhead will be ragged and rough, requiring 4WD high clearance! No trailers of any kind recommended as this also ford's a creek and isn't enough room to pass one another.