Your sugar house elevation?

[nekgsa]

I haven't seen sugarhouse elevation talked about on here much. What elevation is your sugar house and how does it affect your season? What is the highest and lowest elevation sugarhouse?

[Ultimatetreehugger]

This could be interesting. I know an old timer boiling at 1800 ft on Sheffield Heights, VT. He is kind of a crunchy ol'fella and would tell you even with six feet of snow and using buckets "smooth going"

[Z/MAN]

We are at 1,900 feet and I do see times that guys just a few hundred feet lower then us have sap run and we are still froze up.

[berkshires]

Did you just mean to ask about Vermont?

Gabe

[tcross]

i'm between 1250 and 1300 at my place. i know a few sugar houses that are above 2000 feet with the vast majority of their taps being quite a bit higher up the mountain!

[DrTimPerkins]

Sugarhouse at around 1,320 ft elevation. Sugarbush goes down to 1,200 ft and upward close to 1,700 ft elevation. Mostly west facing slope of Mt. Mansfield. Tends to be fairly cool, but often, especially late in the season we'll get inversions where it is warmer up on the mountain than down in the valley so we miss some freezes. We have a very high density of H2O Smartrek sensors in the woods, and it is amazing how much temperature will vary (several degrees F) just a few hundred feet away depending upon whether you're up on a slight knoll or in a drainage.

Nice GIS tool at https://maps.vermont.gov/vcgi/html5viewer/?viewer=vtmapviewer to look at these types of things.

[calvertbrothers]

Lowest 1810
Highest 1920
Sugar house 1880

[raptorfan85]

I'm at 1300ft. Much higher than anything around me. My bush seems to be cooler and run later into the season than those around me. Not to mention water boils at 210 here.

[RileySugarbush]

868 feet, on the shore of Riley Lake. Highest tap about 920.

[bigschuss]

I'm at right around 2,000' in the Berkshires of NW Mass....a cold snowy plateau that feels more like northern, Maine than Mass. We get so much snow typically that I don't even begin tapping until the 1st week of March and my season runs into mid-April.

[maple flats]

Wow, looks like I'm the lowest elevation so far. My sugarhouse is at 432' elevation, the highest tap is about 445'.
I'm sure others are lower, but not so far in this thread. I know of another who has not chimed in yet, if he posts it will be lower still.
Back when I had 2 leases my highest tap was almost 2000' elevation.

[red/one]

I have less than 100 taps this year. 2/3 of them are around 200', 1/3 are at about 350'. My sugar ranges from 1.7%-2.1%. My shack is around 230'.

[berkshires]

I'm at around 880' in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains.

GO

[Pdiamond]

My sugar house is at the 900 foot mark.

[minehart gap]

Sugar shack is about 550, sugar bush ranges from 620 to 980.

[VT_K9]

We are at about 1050' of Elevation. We are are the west side just over a peak. Sun hits us about 0930 or so in the morning. There is another sugarhouse about 50 below our elevation about 1/4" mile away. We had 425 taps with vacuum and they had about 800 with no vacuum. We made almost the same number of gallons per year. They had some pretty light color syrup. Many of their trees are roadside and our are in the woods and on ledge.

Mike

[sjdoyon]

My sugarhouse is at 1680’ and is at the base of the sugarbush which ends at 2,400ft elevation. Not unusual to see wild swings in temperatures from the valley to the sugarhouse to the top of the sugarbush.

[amasonry]

my sugarhouse is 522 in elevation and my highest tap 646. North facing and no sun after 4pm so it runs late into the season.

[BAP]

I’m at about 1100 feet at my sugar house and my trees go up to 1200 feet

[JoeJ]

At my sugar house the elevation is 600'. The woods rise from 520' to 640'. 3/4 of the woods is East and South facing. These woods start early and finish early. My remote 2,300 taps 4 1/2 miles away start at 560' and rise to 780'. These woods are North North West and North West. These trees obviously start later and run later than my sugar house woods. The strange thing is that the woods are very different but after the first week of the season when my sugar house woods run a little sweeter, both woods produce almost identical sugar content day after day.

Joe

[Zucker Lager]

The lake next to our land (Sand Lake, Sugar Camp Chain of Lakes, Sugar Camp Wisconsin) is at 1597 but we start about 5 feet higher from lake level and the land slopes up from there about 15 feet to the back of the 55 acres. The trees further from the lake seem to "dispense" earlier than the few close to the lake. I think things thaw out faster further from the lake in spring? Its all mixed woods but more old growth hemlock near the lake, more birch, pine, and popple further from it. Jay

[heus]

About 1043 feet above sea level in NE Ohio near Pa border.

[johnallin]

We're right around 970' on north side of Little Mountain - Lake and Geauga County line

[Father & Son]

Right around 1250’ just east of PA/OH boarder.

[antelope76]

1100 feet in Delaware County, NY

[NhShaun]

Sugar house sitting at around 980ft, lowest point where i collect most sap is 700ft with lots of sun exposure.

[t-ciccarello]

I have tubing that runs from about 1060' down to about 960', and another 40 buckets that sit around the 940' - 920' mark. All are East facing.

[ronewold]

My sugarbush is at about 1700, and my house is 8 miles down the road at about 1000. BIG differences in weather between the two places! Always more snow up there in the bush, and usually colder (except on those weird inversion days). If you are ever driving down I-89 south of Montpelier and the weather turns nasty for a few miles between exit 4 and 5, you are probably on the ridge where I tap. It's the spot that always turns into a blizzard when there is a gentle snow falling in Montpelier and White River. I don't have enough data yet to tell for sure, but I'm hoping that the altitude means my season will run a little late. I don't have much good to show for this season yet.

[collinsmapleman2012]

central ny, about 450 ft. highest tap about 900 and another woods averages about 425.

[ecp]

Sugarhouse is at 1300 feet. Lowest taps are at 1400 and we go up from there. There always seems to be snow at much house in the winter when it isn't snowing anyway else around me. Usually still snow in the cold spots when I'm pulling spouts.


ronewold I know that stretch very well. There and route 4 over Mendon Mountain you don't want to get caught taking your snow tires off to soon or it will bite you for sure.

[220 maple]

I knew this thread was on here somewhere, didn’t get a chance to add my info to busy making syrup when it showed up the first time! In my corner of WV my camp sets at 1100 feet and the highest tree in the bush that directly feeds into the camp is at 2000 feet, I’m east of the Allegheny Front, I doubt if the Amish guys who have the largest sugar camp leased will give any stats, Spruce Knob Maple in Randolph County WV sugar camp sets at 3300 feet and all the trees are above them topping out at 4300 feet, just for another crazy stat they have maybe 18000 taps but could easily add another 50000! I was hoping to lease the neighbors 267 acres and sell them sap, but just couldn’t get together on a deal!
Mark 220 Maple