Keep up the fire, it's maple syrup time!!

It might come as a shock to you, but you can tap maple trees in Missouri!! In fact, there are quite a few people, young and old, who have been tapping for quite some time. I myself started in 2021 and have made it part of my small business which entails selling foraged goods sourced locally in Blue Springs & surrounding areas.

Although sugar maples are the most popular to tap, multiple species of maple can be tapped. I personally exclusively tap silver maples, while my friend in Montana mostly taps Norway maples. Maple sugaring is a seasonal hobby that is highly dependent on weather. I've had seasons last a week in 2021, sproadically in 2022, & consistently for a month in 2023. For Yankeeland & Canada, their season can begin anywhere from early March to at least mid-April. Ours typically begins in February, but can start as early as mid-January.

If you decide to tap, you might be disappointingly surprised that water flows from the drill hole. We all wish syrup would flow instead, but we have to concentrate the natural sugars found in sap. So, what we do is collect this sap, then we boil, boil, boil, & boil some more until enough water is removed to make syrup. The entire process is labor and money intensive, which is why your local sugarmakers like me charge more than our corporate counterparts. But trust me, the work & price is worth it. There's truly nothing like pouring that sweet, locally-sourced goodness onto homemade buttermilk pancakes.

That being said, welcome to my 4th cache & 1st letterbox hybrid!!

If you couldn't tell already, this cache is NOT at the posted coordinates.

I like to keep true with the letterboxing portion, & will give clues along with pics to help guide you down a path I take multiple times a year.

Arrive at posted coordinates. Facing WSW, you should see a pile of honeysuckle I cut to widen the trail you will use.

Approach the brush pile. Look south. You'll see the trail, wide enough to fit a car in.

Walk down the trail until you see the 1st silver maple I tapped in 2021. You'll notice an obvious scar from when I nailed a notice on the tree, forgot the nails for 2 years, then tried to remove 1 in vain.

Keep walking south, weaving through the silver maple patch. You'll approach the last silver maple on the left, which looks pretty much dead. You should see the dead top of the tree snapped off.

Look a little to your right (SSW). The trail continues for about 4 more yards. Once you hit that dead end, the cache should be blatantly obvious.

Please trade items of equal or greater value. There's a lot of goodies, & I don't want to find the cache either empty or full of trash.

DO NOT TAKE THE STAMP, PERIOD.

Here are the links for the letterbox portion:

Letterboxing North America

Atlas Quest