Tom Gill (lapstrake)'s photostream  

Perfect weather for sap collecting - cold nights and warm days. The temperature difference really gets the sap flowing. Once the buds pop out, the sap will no longer flow as well, but will be used by the tree to produce leaves.

Dan slides the cover on the bucket that catches Maple sap. It hangs from the tree by a metal spile or spout. The cover keeps leaves, debris, animals and water out of the sap.

Mike uses a hand brace to drill into a demonstration tree. This method is used to insert a spile into a Maple tree to guide the sap into buckets.

Ranger Jean-Pierre checks the water content of the maple sap in the first kettle. It's still got a long way to go.

Three kettles hang above open fires, boiling maple sap - for the annual Mapel sugar demonstration. The largest kettle contains sap directly from the tree. It has a high water content and will boil for quite a while before being transferred into the middle kettle. Once the sap has reduced again, it will be transferred into the third, small kettle. A small twig, twisted into a loop (similar to a bubble wand) was used to test the syrup to see if it was ready for bottling. If the syrup's surface tension is enough to spread across the loop without breaking (like bubble soap) it's ready.