DANBY, Vt.—Sugarmakers were racing to capture the first big sap run of the season.

A sap run late this week got many sugarmakers scrambling to drill taps, set tanks and check leaks.

“It’s a nightmare,” said Ryan White of Danby, Vt. 

White said sap that came in Wednesday had “nice flow” but he was bringing his sap to a neighbor because he wasn’t ready to boil yet. 

“We still have 5,000 to put in.”

It was a race against the clock this week.

“We got 900 in and about 500 to go,” Brett Ford of Harrisonville, Pa. told The Maple News on Monday.

In New Hampshire, sugarmaker Bud Taylor of Jaffray, N.H. said his state was starting to rumble.

“It looks like this week we’re really gonna get a good run,” Taylor told The Maple News on Wednesday. “I got lots of dripping off the roof eaves.  I was tapped a week ago.”

Taylor said he hoped to be boiling by Saturday.

Even in northern New York things were moving.

“We got just enough to sweeten the rig,” said Mike Bennett of Full Throttle Sugarhouse in Ellenburg Center, N.Y.  Bennett has been tapping for weeks.

Bennett was one of the few sugarmakers who boiled last weekend.  

Down in the southern states, sugarmakers have been at it for a month already.

Matt Cabral of Virgina Beach, Va. started boiling on Jan. 10. This week has been great.

“Yesterday the trees ran and Tuesday night they ran,” he told The Maple News.

Next week looks even better.

“It’s showing between Monday and Wednesday the trees are going run,” he said.

Cabral has 175 taps out this season. 

Out in the Midwest, sugarmakers are also active.

“Over here in Michigan, people are definitely getting excited about the upcoming maple season,” said Kirk Hedding of Dexter, Mich. “Most sugarmakers I talk with are in the woods every day getting ready.”

“The dealers have been swamped with last minute sales and of course answering the daily question ‘When do we tap?” Hedding said.