How Far Do You WALK for a Bucket?

[cbhansen]

Following up on FFHII's post "Who's Still Tapping All Buckets?", I was wondering how far do you walk to gather that last bucket of sap? Of course, most of us have a series of buckets to collect but how far is it to that one "nice" tree you've just got to tap. My farthest bucket is about 500 hundred feet in from the road. But to be fair, half of the distance is along a reasonably nice trail making walking with 2 full 5 gal pails not too bad.

[markct]

Well I don't have a single bucket in my operation anymore, but was just thinkin how crazy it is carrying buckets outa the woods! My friends son who is 12 has been tapping trees in his yard and expanded to his neighbors up and down the street around 40 taps this year, he puts the sap in a tank and we pump it out and boil it with my sap and he gets the syrup from it. Good kid, helps me with firewood and tapping etc, a lot of his buckets are on the street so he gathers them with a wagon and small tank. Was helping him gather his ones in the woods where they have to be carried out and was thinking how glad I am not to have buckets, had to carry many pails of sap uphill around 300ft, glad his sap was running good but sure is a lot to carry!

[Sandersyrup]

Ive got one 5 gallon thats a good 100 yards out of the sugarbush. I have to stumble through a nightmare of brambles and thicket and the meanest wild Raspberries, the ground is covered in branches and debris so my feet are never on the ground, the branches on the tree are very low so I have to crawl to the bucket, pick it up and crawl/maneuver it back through the whole mess again with 5 gallons of sap.

But the tree runs great at 4.5%

So somebody might find my broken and exposed corpse there someday.. but until then I'll always run into battle for that sweet sap.

Actually, never mind, eventually I'll just make my kids do it. :)

John

[cncaboose]

We REALLY try to keep it under 100 feet, though up through last season we had some that were 100 yards. Those trees are on tubing this season, if we ever get a season.

[warners point]

We have a very good trail system in our woods so the farthest we have to go from the trailer is maybe 25 yards. No way I would go over 50 yards to get that one last tree.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[KGodshall]

Just over a quarter mile. (No treadmill workouts needed during good flow days/weeks.)

And yes, 2 five gallon buckets full of sap get heavy, especially when they fill up before I run out of taps to check, and I have to do it 2x in one run.

[Lethalbowman]

9146 I use my new Otter sled and snowshoes to walk to my farthest bucket that is about 250 yards from my back door. It is quite a workout and when the sap is really running I expect to be doing it twice just to bring all the sap back to the house.

[Cabin]

My sugar bush and arch is one quarter mile from the house. I have 2 taps by the house that I carry to my holding tank by the arch and the rest are within 300 yards of the tanks. I had tapped the trees by the house to have some sap boiling on the wood stove but the last bad cold spell used up most of my firewood for heating. I think I will be moving those two taps this weekend.

[Michael Greer]

I have a couple of trees that make me walk 100 feet, but the vast majority are within fifteen feet of the truck. It has to be a good tree to walk that far.

[cbhansen]

That's a nice sled Lethalbowman. You could carry / pull quite the load of sap.

[maplestudent]

I have a group of 4 trees that are about 350 feet out, but the best way to get to them is by walking a large arc, so the walk is longer than than. three of them are sugars (I have mostly reds) and are good sap producers, so I make the trip.

I have to say though, I'd rather make 2 trips carrying a half-full 5 gallon bucket in each hand than one trip with full buckets.

[Jonnie Maple]

I had planned on being able to drive my truck to within a few yards of my trees. I did not anticipate snow up to my ..... So I came up with this idea to go get the sap. Not an easy chore pulling this when full through the woods, especially up and down hills.

9174

[Yellzee]

I know I got lazy but after sliding down the hill spilling sap All over myself too many years in a row I set up tubing. Was probably 200 feet max.

[cncaboose]

I don't want to be the tapping police here, but Jonnie Maple, you have too many buckets on that tree.

[Jonnie Maple]

I don't want to be the tapping police here, but Jonnie Maple, you have too many buckets on that tree.

That's my partners taps, I would have done 2. I didn't measure that tree but it must be over 24".

[markct]

Is 3 taps realy too many for that tree? maybe not the most conservative of tapping guidelines but I realy wouldn't say its excessive either looks to be a 30 inch tree or so.

[theguywiththename]

Personally that's a reasonable number of taps for that size tree. Used to have to walk pretty far for buckets before snow melted and could get fourwheeler in by the trees. Glad I'm mostly tubing this year!

[Rangdale]

I'd be interested to see the long term study on number of taps per tree / long term tree health. My wife's family was extremely poor growing up and had to grow most of their own food and do whatever they could. Her dad has 6 big maples that look about that size (maybe a little bigger) and put 5 taps (the tradition rolled spiles with buckets) on every tree, every year, for more than 20 years. The trees are still in his yard to this day and don't look any worse for wear (at least on the outside).

[markcasper]

I was taught for each additional 6" diameter to add another tap starting @ 10". I don't think he is overtapping, but hard to tell from a picture, just going off bucket size. Hence @ 22" you could have 3 taps. These probably were not the guidelines any longer b/c of vacuum.

If you think that is bad, you should see some of the tapping going on my neighborhood. It is a joke, there are people putting 3 taps in 12" trees around here.

[ray1020]

that tree 3 taps tolal ben doing this for 45 years