Digger,
i have never been out to the trail going towards hawksnest...i think i have heard of the one that you are talking about though. As far as samson goes it has a little of everything to play on. The main road that the trail is based on starts out with several water crossings, they're not deep but fun to drive through. The further in the trail you go it begins to turn into more rocks, the whole road is like one huge carved out slab of rock, then there are lots of places to get muddy...some hill climbing areas off to the side and further back there are some more rocks to climb on...you just have to kinda check it out for yerself to see what you thing of it..it kinda varies depending on what yer into i guess... i have seen stockers go through some of the areas as well as the big boys too...