031318 LCJ Maple Syrup (CJ)

Candace H. Johnson-For Shaw Media Olive Snodgrass, 6, of Libertyville stands next to her brother, Eli, 3, as he tries to use a hand drill to tap for sap in a sugar maple tree during a Maple Syrup Hike at Ryerson Woods in Riverwoods.The drill should only go into the tree three to four inches and then a spile is put into the hole to let the sap drip out of the tree.(3/11/18)

Candace H. Johnson-For Shaw Media Mikey Kos, 7, of Round Lake Park and his brother, Christopher, 5, look at a sugar maple tree dripping sap into a bucket during a Maple Syrup Hike at Ryerson Woods in Riverwoods.It takes forty gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup.(3/11/18)

Candace H. Johnson-For Shaw Media Janie Aull, of Knollwood, (on right) a volunteer nature guide, leads a group during a Maple Syrup Hike at Ryerson Woods in Riverwoods.She stopped the group to talk about how to roll a log and to be careful of the creatures laying underneath.(3/11/18)

Candace H. Johnson-For Shaw Media Volunteer Rachel Utt, of Des Plaines takes a group on a Maple Syrup Hike and stops at a sugar maple tree dripping sap into buckets used for making maple syrup at Ryerson Woods in Riverwoods.(3/11/18)

Candace H. Johnson-For Shaw Media Volunteer Rachel Utt, of Des Plaines talks about how a sugar maple tree works to make sap used for maple syrup before she leads a group on a Maple Syrup Hike in the Welcome Center at Ryerson Woods in Riverwoods.(3/11/18)

Candace H. Johnson-For Shaw Media Jen Berlinghof, of Chicago, environmental educator, puts firewood into the fire of an evaporator as it cooks sap from sugar maple trees used to make maple syrup at Ryerson Woods in Riverwoods.A jar of maple syrup and a jar of tree sap sits on a table to the left of the evaporator.(3/11/18)

Candace H. Johnson-For Shaw Media Visitors go on a Maple Syrup Hike with Janice Aull, of Knollwood, a volunteer nature guide, at Ryerson Woods in Riverwoods.(3/11/18)

Candace H. Johnson-For Shaw Media Janice Rinehart, of Lindenhurst leads the way towards a bucket on a sugar maple tree dripping sap into it and used to make maple syrup during a Maple Syrup Hike at Ryerson Woods in Riverwoods.(3/11/18)

Candace H. Johnson-For Shaw Media Sap comes out of a spile into a bucket attached to a sugar maple tree at Ryerson Woods in Riverwoods.The tree is a couple of hundred years old.(3/11/18)

Candace H. Johnson-For Shaw Media Jayden Schoning, 7, of Oak Park tries samples of sap from a sugar maple tree and maple syrup before taking a Maple Syrup Hike at Ryerson Woods in Riverwoods.(3/11/18)