Muskoka Maple Festival: in photos

The Kiwanis Sap Run kicked off the festival with a fun run for kids under 13. Here participants race up to Main Street from River Mill Park for a 500m loop. (See more Sap Run photos here.)

Paul Rae (left) and Johanne Rae Stewart were two of the friendly volunteers selling maple festival pins to attendees

The popular pancake breakfast was made possible by local Rotarians including (from left) Lea Barker, Dylan Jarvis, Suzi Jarvis, Andrea Bonafini, Will Gibson, Lou Luvison, and Brian Loxton

Rick Keevil (left) and Don Ferguson demonstrated how to boil down sap for interested festival-goers

Stella, a seven-year-old French bulldog, came dressed for the occasion in a plaid coat

Sherri Campbell (right) of Sweetwater Maple Syrup pours maple syrup over ice blocks while Jayden Campbell waits to twirl it onto a stick to satisfy the sweet-tooths of festival attendees

(Back from left) Alison Marsh, Kathleen Paschalis, Frank Horvat, Chris Marsh; (front from left) Evelyn Marsh and Madeleine Marsh enjoy sweet maple taffy

Allie Chisholm-Smith (right), with mom Anne Chisholm, took home an ash bucket from the Friends of the Muskoka Watershed as part of a project to use wood ash to help restore calcium levels in local forests

Jackie Lovegrove (left) of Jackie Lovegrove Catering served up grilled cheese and maple bacon sandwiches with the help of Kelly Holinshead (centre) and Terry Cummings

Local fibre artist, Pam Carnochan, was on hand at her show ‘Because I Felt Like It’ in the Partners Hall Gallery to explain her process to art lovers. The piece behind her, created using dyed wool from her sheep and iron pieces crafted by blacksmith Deb Harkness, is titled ‘Sweet Collaboration’. Note the sap bucket on the tree at left.

The Garon clan and friends enjoyed the festivities (from left) Daniel Molina, Rick Garon, Victoria Wicks, Janet Wicks, Rita Garon, Lindsay Moskal, Jay Briscoe and Jeff Garon.

Mighty Mike, The Funniest Strongman, with the finale of his act

Dancers from the Almaguin Old Tyme Dancing Group (left) Janice and Ken Launchbury and Ken and Betty Maurage got the crowd warmed up for a later square-dancing demo

Crystal Best-Sararas (left) and Teri Souter with wee Bo Green heard people’s visions for the Town of Huntsville at a Strategic Planning booth in front of the Algonquin Theatre

What’s your vision for Huntsville?

And everywhere there were rows and rows of maple syrup