Your syrup being to thick w/use of your hydrometer, could of been because the syrup temp was too high for what your hydrometer is set up for. If its too thick its fairly easy to thin it out.
As for a darkness of your syrup, it could be the type of trees. I'm not familiar with Arkansas trees (didn't even know you all had a maple sap season that far south). I never really worried about how light or how dark my syrup was. Its all about the taste, filtering and bottling at the right temp for safety. Nothing worse than giving someone a bottle of your syrup and they crack the lid open to find mold.
I run a separate pan to finish and bottle my syrup. I'm just a hobby syrup maker carrying on an old family tradition. I have around 100 - 125 taps out and a 2 x 6 continuous flow evap. With a full time job, this is all I can handle by myself. I boil on weekends and maybe an evening or two if sap is really running hard. I will get the sap boiled down to a point and stockpile for a short time in 5 gallon buckets with lids. Storing in buckets for a short period of time allows for all the sediment to settle to the bottom and I will pull from the top. just toss the bottom sediment.
Time to finish into syrup I run a big SS pot (about 10 gallons) with a bottom valve. I do the finishing on a cast iron top woodburner stove to keep flames off the bottom of the pan, get the syrup to the right brix and to get my syrup up to 185 degrees for bottling.
I'm the only one that I know of in my area that tries to make maple syrup. Have watched this site's syrup making threads and decided why not try it! This is my 3rd year. I only have 12 trees that I can tap unless I talk to a few neighbors. The lower trunks of the trees are black. Been told they are sugar maple. The hydrometer I have is a syrup hydrometer from one of the companies up north.
I'll boil down about 15 gallons to 1 gallon, then cool and refrigerate until I get a couple gallons of concentrate, then finish and bottle.
I put several clean pint canning jars on a flat pan and put in the oven and bring up to 250 degrees. After filtering, I reheat to 220 degrees and ladle into the jars, put on lid and ring, cover with a heavy towel and let cool and seal.