A moderate to difficult trail in Louisiana or Mississippi

Only "difficult" trail I can think of in this area is Tunica/Clark Creek.

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Others of note would be the Backbone Trail (7.7 miles) and the Caroline Dorman Trail (10.5 miles), both near Natchitoches in Kisatchie and can be joined to make for a longer hike if wanted.

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This is what I was going to say. Did the Backbone Trail with my teenage sons when the weather was cooler, and it was a great experience. Wouldn’t really want to do it in the summer.

If you start at the Caroline Dorman trailhead, walk the Backbone, and then road hike back to your car it’s almost 11 miles IIRC.

There is a 150 mile trail that some guys in the Louisiana hiking community have come up with.

It links the backbone, sandstone, Caroline dormon (referred to as kisatchie loop), wild azalea, and encompasses some trails that are a part of the camp Claiborne system.

All the trails listed above are fun to do by themselves and you can really do a lot of different hikes by using the kisatchie trail system

With that being said though for 10ish miles you could do:
- backbone trail one way (7 ish almost 8 miles)
- Caroline dormon one way (10.5 miles)
- combine sections or the wild azalea either as one way or out and back. There are 7 segments to this trail so you’ve got plenty of hop on/off points and combinations you can do to give you 10 miles
- tuxachanie trail in Mississippi as a one way (a little over 12 miles)

Try an app called Trailforks, it’s free and will show all the trails in your area along with ratings and reviews.

Clear Springs trails just east of Natchez in the Homochitto National Forest might be what you're looking for. Nothing crazy, but a decent amount of up and down.