Advice on 2-night backpacking trip in the Superstitions?

[Wingsrising]

Here's the situation: In mid-March my boyfriend and I planned to do a 2-night backpacking trip from Canyon Lake, down Boulder Canyon Trail, and then down past Weaver's Needle. We're regular hikers (although not what I'd call really strong hikers) and beginning backpackers. Boulder Canyon trail turned out to be much more rugged than we were expecting (and also there were about a zillion creek crossings in March) and the upshot is while we had a great trip we didn't get anywhere close to Weaver's Needle.

We're planning another 2-night backpacking trip in the next few weeks and are looking for advice. My initial thought was to start closer to Weaver's Needle at the Peralta trailhead, hike up the Bluff Spings and Dutchman's trails, and then down the Terrapin trail. However, I'm nervous after our experience in Boulder Canyon -- normally I'd say we should have no problem doing that loop in a 3-day 2-night trip, but man, we made so much less mileage in Boulder Canyon this spring than I was expecting -- we didn't even make it to the junction with Second Water trail the first day, although we got a late start. I am wondering how rugged those trails are relative to the Boulder Canyon trail? Is there (dry) camping in the northern part of the Terrapin Trail? Might there be other water sources besides LaBarge and Charliebois springs? Lastly, any idea how much colder than Phoenix itself is that route likely to be?

(If there are other routes that would be better to take, I'm open to suggestions -- I live in Flagstaff so it's not like this is my one and only chance to hike in the Weaver's Needle area. I do like the fact that it has LaBarge and Charliebois springs, though, meaning opportunities to bail with water if we find we're not making enough mileage to make the whole loop. )

Thank you for any advice you might have!

[Watauga]

@chumley

Very interesting stuff. Thanks for the info!