End of Tapping Weekend

April 9th through 11th, 2010

Lake Lucerne
On Friday, just after sunset, soft white bands of smoke from cabin-warming fires floated over the lake. No fishermen were sighted, which was expected. Opening day is 3 weeks away.
Lake Lucerne
On Saturday, a memo was sent out informing all on the north end of Lucerne that the sap had stopped running and bucket pulling time had started.
Lake Lucerne
A few trees did not get the memo.
Lake Lucerne
The meager amount of sap some of the trees were producing was deemed insignificant. All buckets and spiles were out of the woods by 1:30 PM.
Lake Lucerne
All but a few buckets were washed, rinsed and stacked by 2:00 PM
Lake Lucerne
After bucket pulling there was golf, church, golf, a campfire, Drinks and a cigar (5 Vegas Gold!), pool and a well attended bar night. Saturday night did not end until well into Sunday morning.
Lake Lucerne
The lake is down. Winter did a poor job this year of bringing the level up. Now it's up to spring to supply the storms needed to push the lake level up a foot or two (or three, or four). We measured 0.4 inches of rain last week. Spring will have to do better than that to get my respect. The water remaining is clear and cold. Swimming and skiing will have to wait a week or two (or three, or four). The smelt run on the lake this year was great if you don't count the lack of any smelt.


-Nemo