Secluded sugar bush help/ideas

[marktripp]

The guy that allows me to tap his trees informed me of a secluded sacred stash. He has cut heavily his lot for a subdivision leaving scattered maple here and there. The subdivision area was older grown up clear cut so the maples there are tall with little crown. I'm noticing that's not good for sap flow. So I went walking his property to another spot he told me about. This spot is in a steep south east facing slope full of maple I cannot reach around :-) and I have a larger than most wing span at 6'3" tall. So here's my dilemma. He uses this as a ski glade. I'm more than welcome to tap it but its 1/4+ mile down a trail and then it's very steep walking.

Can I run lines above head height? Or what's your thoughts on running black polly mainline on the ground before snow and have multiple collection site on the hillside all running to the main line and a collection at the bottom on trail side? I could then use buckets and collect then go the the designated sites say maybe 2-4 and dump the buckets in and allow it to gravity feed down the hillside.

Does any of this make sense?

[PerryW]

Usually the good glade skiing season is mostly over by the time sugaring rolls around. I'm assuming you want to leave the tubing up year round, so ... you could put the laterals way up in the trees after you finish washing after the season and unhook and roll up some of the laterals in key areas where the skiers might go.

Also, avoid running the tubing across the slope and instead run you lines straight down the slope as much as possible. You could also probably loosen the side-pulls on your mainline and push it way up to sllow skiing under it in certain area.