I park at the Starkey Park end of the trail. If you park at the Suncoast parking lot at 54 it's 4 1/2 miles to the Starkey Park trail intersection - then 6 1/2 miles through the woods to Starkey park.
I came face to face with a large wild boar in the park 2 days ago that was in the middle of the path. I've seen deer in the park, gators (of course - it's Florida), boar, tons of snakes and turtles - and a bobcat that walked across the bike path and stared me down while I was sitting on a small bench!