Tapping UP Michigan

Uptapper,
Are your maples on a south facing hill? If yes you may get some flow this weekend however the forecast isn't great for sap flow. We need sun and 40 deg days with near 20 deg nights and low to no wind.
My sugar bush is south of foster city 10+ miles and far from pavement but if you would like to visit you'd be welcome to visit and see what we are doing. Right now we don't believe that there will be enough sap to start up the evaporator but we will be fine tuning our new sugar shack and I will answer all the questions you wish to ask.

Tapped this past Saturday, and ended up with 60 gal of sap.

Plungerke, that is a generous invitation, thank you, I would love to stop by. I will PM you for details.

UPtapper I would wait another weekend longer or more, this weekend doesn't look the best and last weekend I only collected 100 gallons off of 232 taps. If you miss the sap run for whatever reason, I could also give you some sap. Do you have a camp on Ride Out road?

That is extremely generous, thank you. I am back in Bartles road, which is off of Finn Town Road, very close to Ride Outs.

Your sap numbers put it in perspective. I need to balance sap flow against rearranging my work schedule. I am going to watch the weather closely as Friday approaches and see what makes sense.

Thanks everyone for the responses!

Any advice or suggestions are welcome. I also was happy to see that 2 people posting here appear to be from Foster City, any local advice would be great.[/QUOTE]

UPtapper, i have a 40 a lil south of foster city on the high banks road. i will be putting out @100 taps this weekend and hope to have a boil going by week's end. i have held off tapping a week or 2 because i was getting tired of dealing with all the ice the past coupla years. you will probably drive past my gate on ur way up. stop in if u have questions, want to check out a different setup, or are out of beer. ;) there are 3 camps making syrup on the high banks.

Goose52
I’m not familiar with the High banks road, is there another name for it? I would like to make a sugar bush tour to see some other people’s inventions, if your open to a visitor?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Plungerke

Goose52
I’m not familiar with the High banks road, is there another name for it? I would like to make a sugar bush tour to see some other people’s inventions, if your open to a visitor?

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plunger,
always glad to have company when i'm at camp. talking to myself gets less interesting every year! high banks road is exactly 6 mi north of us2 on the foster city road.... if ur coming down from foster, high banks is maybe 2 miles south of that cool cement bridge on the sturgeon river. right at the start of that of that long straight stretch with the 4 or 5 camps on the river, the high banks road snakes up a hill going east. there's a uninhabited brown ranch house with scorch marks on it right where the river runs alongside the foster city road. look for that scorched ranch- high banks is about 75yds north of it or so. i'm 2 miles in but we've really gotten after the road the last coupla years & it's in good shape even in the spring. poor reception at camp but i can usually get a text (715-938-4700) and i can meet you at the gate with my ranger and drive u in.

i tapped this past weekend & had a small run but came home to resupply. weather sounds great starting wed so i will head back up then and should get a boil in at week's end.

shoot me a text or a call & we can hook up. also interested in checking out ur operation as well.

mark

Goose52, I’d love to stop by and say hello. I am going to wait until the weather seems right to go up for a long weekend, I will message you before I go and see if you are around.

Late last week and weekend I checked with everyone I know in the central UP who does any syrup gathering, everyone said there is very very little flow right now, and people are just collecting a little ice in their bags and buckets. That is not a surprise in light of the nighttime temperature. I am going to keep an eye on the forecast and hope for better in the next weekend or 2.

40 trees tapped Sunday, by the end of the day a few drops. This weekend could be 38 up here ar Lake Medora. I would encourage everyone to use saptapapp...its free and is phenomenal, check it out.