Maple Sugar Shack, upstate New York

On a ride in upstate New York two collies sitting in the seat of a tractor caught my attention and I stopped to meet the pups, Massey and Fergie-named for the tractor they sat in, and their owner Richard, who invited me back to see the maple syrup making process. Today Ron, Richard and friends from his paper mill days, as well as the new generation, showed me the age old process of boiling down maple syrup into the sweet sugary goodness. 

The wood fire warmed shack smelled amazing and the syrup fresh out of the process, still toasty from the hot fires, was better than coffee-pure sugar. This kind of serendipitous meeting is what road tripping, and now bike adventures, are all about!