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On a sunny but cool weekend in October I met with four other guys from the azwilderness site for a two day hike on the Maxwell Trail. Being my first overnighter in Arizona, it was a great experience and introduction to nighttime in this state.
When I arrived at Mike's house the rest of the team was already waiting. The trip from Tramonto to Fountain Hills took about 5 minutes longer than I expected. But no one seemed too miffed with my tardiness as we all introduced ourselves. From Fountain Hills we were to head north to Payson and then cut across to the Maxwell Trail.
Although the trailhead was well marked with a standard trailhead sign, we had a hard time finding it. We were drawn towards the grandious views of the canyon and were expecting the trailhead to lead off from one of the lookout points. It turned out that the trailhead was back away from the viewpoints, in fact, we had walked right past it to get to the lookouts.
The trail headed downhill immediately. Over the next 0.7 miles it dropped 700 feet. Along the descent there were several great viewpoints and we watched as we dropped to the base of the canyon.
At the bottom a very cold stream runs year round. I don't know if the temperature of the water changes during the year but in October it was very very cold. Too cold to walk in.
The trail coming down into the canyon was pretty well maintained. But once we were down at the bottom of the canyon the trail quickly faded out. We knew to head upstream since there were little patches of trail in that direction.
This was pretty rugged going. There was a lot of climbing over boulders and fallen trees. At several points we had to jump from rock to rock to cross the stream. Some of these jumps were a bit long. If you didn't make it you were rewarded with a splash into thigh-deep freezing cold water. That only happened to someone on the team once. It wasn't me.
After another half mile we reached a rocky campsite. This would have worked ok for the group but it wasn't ideal. A couple guys ran off and did a bit of exploring and found a better campsite not too far away. The new site was perfect. Plenty of room for the five tents and easy access to the water.
We all enjoyed an evening kicking back, relaxing, and talking. Most of all, we all developed a great hatred of rabbits as evidenced by the frequent "I hate rabbits" comments people made.
At this point I learned something very important about backpacking in Arizona. Despite the fact that much of Arizona is desert, it can get cold at night. For this trip I tried to minimize my equipment as much as possible. So instead of bringing my fullsized sleeping bag I brought a 50-degree fleece bag. The advantage was that it was small and light. The disadvantage, I found out, was that it wasn't enought insulation at night.
So that night I frooze to death while trying to sleep. I didn't sleep much at all just because I was so cold. Hopefully, though, that's a lesson learned. I'll definitely think twice before neglecting to bring a warmer sleeping bag.
In the morning we packed up and headed back to the trail. Again, it was pretty rough going. It didn't take long and we were back at the starting point to head up the hill.
Mainly due to my lack of sleep the night before I was already very tired. But we all started up the hill. It didn't take long, about 0.1 miles, before I found myself unable to continue without a long rest. After a rest I'd make it another little ways up the trail and then have to rest again.
Eventually I made it out of the canyon but it was very strenous for me. Either I'm way too out of shape for that kind of a climb or I was just overly tired. I'm going with the second explanation but I'm afraid that the first explanation is more accurate.
The trip was a success. We all had a great time and I would enjoy going back to Maxwell Trail in the future. Depending on the time of the year I'll definitely bring a warmer sleeping bag. And I'll know what to expect when it comes to climbing out of a steep canyon like that.
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Hiking 
