The art of the can

Local printing company celebrates creativity of craft beer labels

On Thursday, April 20, printing company Amherst Label in Milford will display the art of the beer can label with a showcase called “Canvas,” featuring artwork from 18 craft beers brewed in New England and New York.

“We’re always about shelf appeal and asking, ‘How do you tell your story,’” said Amherst Label’s president, Nye Hornor. “These breweries have knocked it out of the park.”

Hornor and his team will welcome 150 guests at the opening show. At the time of reporting, approximately half of the slots had been filled for the opening.

The plan is to have the artwork on display for a year, Hornor said. He hopes to either have private showings for small groups or have another larger gathering later in 2023 to continue celebrating the artwork.

This is not the first art show Amherst Labels has hosted, Hornor said. For the company’s 40th anniversary it hosted professional artists. A few years later, before the pandemic, it held small shows of artwork by employees and their family members.

With this year being Amherst Label’s 45th anniversary, Hornor wanted to do something special.

“We have a passion for breweries,” he said, noting that labels tell a story. “Breweries make a story on their can and we have put it in a gallery.”

Hornor and Ruth Sterling, who is the marketing manager at Amherst Labels, reached out to their clients and had them choose the 18 label designs that would be featured in the show. Five of those designs come from New Hampshire breweries, including a design from Nashua’s Rambling House Food and Gathering and one from Concord’s Feathered Friend Brewing.

The artwork is set up with a 11- by 14-inch print of the artwork on the can, the can itself, and a quote from the artist telling the story behind the design. Visitors can scan a QR code to see more information about each of the artists and the art on display.

In addition to looking at the cans, visitors will be able to taste the beers that are displayed, have some tasty snacks and take a tour of the printing facilities.

While the show highlights the artists who design the cans, Hornor said it was important to recognize all the skill and effort that go into making each beer look perfect.

“Press men are artists,” said Hornor. “We have artists in house that work on artwork on a daily basis to … match up what the artwork is meant to look like and have it at the end of the press as art.”

Canvas
Where: Amherst Label, 15 Westchester Drive, Milford
When: Thursday, April 20, from 2 to 6 p.m.
More info and to RSVP: www.amherstlabel.com/canvas-rsvp

Featured photo: The label for Formation 3 by Feathered Friend. Photoshop image by Tucker Jadczak.

Powered by rays

How to hook in to solar power and other renewable energy sources

Plus Where to check out electric cars

By Mya Blanchard
listings@hippopress.com

Tyler Costa hasn’t had regular electric billssince 2021. Instead, he has lease payments of less than $150 a monththanks to solar panels installed on the roof of his Nashua home.

“I decided to get solar panels as I believe in renewable energy sources and wanted to reduce my carbon footprint,” Costa said.

While production is reduced during the winter months, any accumulated snow on the roof comes off fairly easily due to the dark, slippery surface of the panels, which warm up faster than shingles.
“Lucky for me, I produce more than I consume, and the money I make comes back to me to make up [for] the small differences during the winter months,” Costa said.

This past year, utility costs skyrocketed to all-time highs in New Hampshire. This increase was in part due to our reliance on natural gas.

“In New England we rely heavily on natural gas to generate electricity,” said William Hinkle, media relations manager for Eversource, New Hampshire’s largest utility. “When the price of natural gas changes, we also see significant impacts to electric supply prices through New England, and that’s what we saw last year.”

One way to combat this is through the use of renewable energy sources.

What is renewable energy?

According to Rebecca Beaulieu, communications director and an organizer of 350 New Hampshire, renewable energy is defined as energy that is able to be harnessed continuously.

“Specifically, we mean clean renewable energy,” she said. “Ones where they’re not generating large amounts of waste or putting carbon dioxide, methane or other harmful chemicals into the air.”

Examples of such sources include solar and hydropower, and wind, biomass and geothermal energy.

“New Hampshire … is really far behind on renewable energy production,” Beaulieu said of New Hampshire compared to other New England states.

According to the New Hampshire Department of Energy, more than half of the energy generated in the state comes from nuclear power. In 2021, renewable energy sources accounted for 16 percent of our in-state electricity generation, compared to Maine at 72 percent, and Vermont at nearly 100 percent, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. (More than half of Vermont’s power comes from out of state, with the largest share coming from hydroelectric power, much of which is generated in Canada, according to the EIA.)

One of the most accessible forms of renewable energy for homeowners is solar power.

Around the sun

Solar power is sunlight converted by technology such as solar panels into electricity, as explained by the U.S. Department of Energy.

While it may have only accounted for 1 percent of the state’s total net generation, according to the EIA, Beaulieu points out that “most of New Hampshire’s solar energy production right now comes from households having solar panels on their roofs.”

Getting solar panels installed on your house is a three- to four-month process with dozens of steps, only four of which the customer is involved in. The first step is contacting a solar installation company and working out a house’s needs and space for solar panels.

“We very specifically design a system to that customer’s usage and that customer’s house and the angles on the roof and the position it sits facing the sun,” said Mark Robichaud, founder of Merrimack Solar, a solar panel installation company that services New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Next is a site survey. Trained engineers come to your home and assess whether or not your house can support a solar system by looking at the condition of the roof, the structure and the electrical system to see if it is susceptible to damage.

The third step is getting approval from your town. Not only are towns usually happy to approve of solar panel installation, but having solar panels installed on your house can increase your home’s value.

“The data bears out that houses with solar installed on them are making 4.1 percent more in sale and selling 16 percent faster than houses that do not have solar,” Robichaud said.

Lastly, before the installation process can begin, the customer needs to obtain permission from their utility company. This involves the company installing the solar panels writing up details along with a computer-aided design drawing to send over to the utility company.

“The utility makes that final determination of whether or not we can move forward,” Robichaud said.

Overall pricing, Robichaud said, comes down to the size and power of the system. He said a general rule of thumb is about $4 per watt, meaning a 5-kilowatt system runs about $20,000.

When going through Merrimack Solar, you can finance your solar system or agree to a power purchase agreement, where the customer doesn’t pay for installation, but for the electricity, at a lower price.

“If you go … ownership overall, you’re saving upward of $40,000 over your lifetime by going solar, because once a solar system is paid for, you don’t pay for electricity anymore in most cases,” Robichaud said. “We effectively become your power company.”

According to Robichaud, 95 percent of Merrimack Solar’s panels are made from recyclable material and are designed to last 40 years.

“Instead of using gas, coal and oil and falling victim to whatever they’re charging for those, you’re taking something that’s free, the sun, and converting it into electricity onsite and using it at your house,” Robichaud said. “You go from having no control over what you’re paying for your electricity to having complete control.”

Other renewable energy sources

Besides solar, other common forms of renewable energy include hydropower, wind power, biomass and geothermal energy.

Hydropower takes the energy from falling water and converts it into electricity via a generator. This energy source was responsible for 7 percent of New Hampshire’s total net generation in 2021, according to the EIA.

The Boscawen-based Granite State Hydropower Association has 50 small power plants across 35 towns in New Hampshire.

“If you look at some of the states with a high percentage of hydropower … they have some of the cheapest rates in the nation,” Association president Bob King said. “Hydropower … has no fuel cost, so it is not susceptible to the incredible increase in natural gas prices that is felt in the wallets of every ratepayer in New Hampshire.”

Not only is hydropower emissions-free, but it also helps clean out bodies of water in the process by sifting out debris and trash as the water flows through a screen.

A turbine converts the kinetic energy of falling water into mechanical energy, which is then converted into electricity by a generator. For every 100 units of falling water kinetic energy, King said this produces about 80 to 90 units of electricity.

“It’s clean, it’s simple, it’s efficient,” he said.

When it comes to wind energy, EIA data shows that it made up 3 percent of New Hampshire’s in-state electricity generation. That could rise in the future with the Gulf of Maine wind farm, a project that New Hampshire is part of a task force for. According to the Gulf of Maine Association, this “sea within a sea” covers 36,000 square miles of ocean and has 7,500 miles of coastlines, bordering New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and parts of Canada.

“There are areas that have been designated in the Gulf of Maine and will continue to be refined for renewable energy and for offshore wind,” said Rob Werner, the state director for the League of Conservation Voters.

The Gulf of Maine receives some of the most powerful and consistent winds in the world, according to the Natural Resources Council of Maine. To best capture this power, the wind turbines, which would be positioned on floating platforms, will likely be positioned 25 to 50 miles from the coast. Harnessing the wind energy from the Gulf of Maine has the potential to serve not only Maine but New Hampshire and Massachusetts, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Biomass is defined as fuel that comes from organic materials like wood and wood processing waste, agricultural crops and waste, sewage and animal manure. Converting such materials into energy prevents greenhouse gasses from entering the atmosphere during decomposition, according to the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Wood seems to account for most of New Hampshire’s biomass, according to the EIA, which reports that it accounted for 6 percent of the state’s total net electricity generation in 2021. Eighty-six percent of this came from the forest industry. The use of biomass is important to the forest industry as well as to landowners, said Jasen Stock, the director of the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association, as it gives another purpose to trees that are unsuitable for lumber.

“We have trees and we have a need to do forest management and so biomass is a great fit for managing land and at the same time making some renewable power,” Stock said. “You don’t get much more homegrown than that.”

Geothermal energy uses the heat flowing from the interior to the surface of the Earth. Wells are drilled into the earth to capture steam and hot water that can be used for electricity as well as heating and cooling.

In New Hampshire, the most commonly used type of geothermal system is referred to as an “open-loop” system, according to the state Department of Environmental Services. Groundwater is pumped out of the well and circulated through the building’s heat pump, where heat is extracted from or transferred into the water. That water is then re-injected either into the same well or a separate well dedicated to re-injection.

Used less frequently, according to the department, is what’s called a “closed-loop” system, by which an antifreeze solution or refrigerant is circulated through an installed pipe in the drilled well.

The carbon dioxide emissions from geothermal energy are just one-sixth the amount from natural gas power plants, according to the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. Despite the high upfront costs, this energy source is cost-effective, can operate in high capacity and is not affected by or dependent on weather.

Closer to a renewable future

While New Hampshire may be behind its New England neighbors, the state is taking steps to catch up. The state’s Renewable Energy fund projects that by 2025, 25.3 percent of the state’s electricity will come from renewable energy sources.

“We do have the technology that we need to move to renewable energy and prioritize our communities over [the] fossil fuel industry,” Beaulieu said.

One recent example Beaulieu mentioned is a 3.3-megawatt solar array in Manchester, unveiled last year at a former Dunbarton Road landfill. According to a press release from Boston-based Kearsarge Energy, which has partnered with the City of Manchester to complete the project, the electricity produced by the more than 8,000 solar modules is enough to power hundreds of homes annually across the Queen City.

In December, Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig announced that the city exceeded its initial projections for electricity produced from the array by 15 percent, generating about 4.37 million kilowatt hours of energy.

Beaulieu says that with solar and wind energy getting cheaper, the transition to renewable energy is becoming more feasible economically.

The environment has the ability to restore itself, she said, if we begin to take better care of it.

“There are a lot of individual people and businesses and legislatures moving this work forward,” Beaulieu said.

Local solar installation companies
Here’s a list of southern New Hampshire-based companies that work to install solar panels on residential and commercial buildings.

• 603 Solar (24 Charter St., Exeter, 570-2607, 603solar.com)
• Granite State Solar (15 Ryan Road, Bow, 369-4318, granitestatesolar.com)
• Merrimack Solar (12 Madison Lane, Merrimack, 978-645-1261, merrimacksolar.com)
• New England Solar Pros (60 Blossom St., Nashua, 318-3232, nesolarllc.com)
• Seventh Gen Solar (814 Route 3A, Bow, 731-4777, seventhgensolar.com)
• Sundial Solar (78 Mountain Road, Concord, 961-0045, sundialsolarnh.com)
• Sunenergy Solutions (75 Gilcreast Road, Londonderry, 844-427-6527, sunenergysolutionsllc.com)
• Sunup Solar (Auburn, 860-2509, sunupsolarnh.com)

Plug-in rides

Electric vehicle showcases for Earth Day and beyond

By Matt Ingersoll
mingersoll@hippopress.com

Jon Gundersen grew tired of making constant trips to the gas station during his long commutes to and from work. In 2011, he purchased his first electric car — a plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt — and he hasn’t looked back.

“I’ve been driving electric vehicles ever since,” he said. “My wife has a gas vehicle, so I’ve still pumped gas, but sometimes I’ll go several months before I visit a gas station now.”

gold colored truck on grass
Rivian R1T. Photo by Jon Gundersen.

Today, Gundersen is a member of the New England Electric Auto Association and volunteers with Drive Electric NH, a coalition promoting the adoption of electric vehicles in the Granite State. He has been involved in several EV showcases across southern New Hampshire, which offer opportunities for attendees to meet owners and ask questions about their cars.

One such showcase is happening at the Nashua Public Library on Saturday, April 22, as part of the city’s inaugural Sustainability Fair and Earth Day Celebration.

Electric vehicles are on the rise in New Hampshire and nationally. According to a June 2022 report from the Edison Electric Institute, more than 26 million EVs are expected to be on U.S. roads by the year 2030 — that’s up from the projected 18.7 million in its 2018 report. More than 65 different EV models are on the market today, and the EEI projects that number will grow to nearly 140 by 2024.

In the Granite State, there are more than 180 public EV charging stations statewide, according to Drive Electric NH, from the Massachusetts border stretching all the way up to the Great North Woods town of Colebrook.

The obvious perk to driving an electric vehicle, Gundersen said, is not having to pump gas. Instead, he has his own 220-volt charger in his home that, when plugged into the car’s port overnight, fills its energy to capacity. Most EVs on the market, he said, can last anywhere between 250 and 350 miles on a full battery.

“Although electricity has gone up over the years, it’s still not too bad. For me, at least, it’s been pretty consistent,” Gundersen said. “When I first got an EV, it was costing me $30 a month in electricity, but at that time I was spending $300 a month on gas. So that was a huge difference … and even today it’s still a little over a third of the cost of driving with gas, for my car anyways. It would be like buying a car that’s like 80 miles to a gallon.”

Another one of Gundersen’s favorite things about EVs is their ability to generate instant torque.

“In an EV, the acceleration from zero to 60 [miles per hour], or even from 30 to 60, is incredibly quick,” he said. “You touch the gas [pedal] and you can feel yourself push back in the seat, it takes off that fast. There’s no waiting for a transmission to shift. It’s instantaneous. … I like being able to step on the gas and instantly pass a truck on the highway or whatever.”

Then there’s a featured mechanism called regenerative braking, which feeds energy back into the car’s battery simply by using its brakes.

“What happens is that when you take your foot off the gas, the electric motor acts sort of like a generator,” Gundersen said. “It’s generating power in a different way, creating a force that helps slow down the car … [and] while you’re slowing down the car is gaining energy in its battery.”

Gundersen will be at the Nashua Sustainability Fair on April 22 with the EV he currently drives, a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt. His will be among at least eight registered models that will be on display in the library parking lot during the event, which will also feature local vendors, an electric yard equipment showcase, games, crafts, food trucks, raffle prizes, a bike repair clinic and a fashion show at noon.

“Some of the EV owners have owned one for years, and some of them are brand new to owning one, even maybe just within the last few months,” Gundersen said. “Some of them will offer test drives, so they can take you around the block or just on a short little trip so that you can get a feel for what driving an electric car is like.”

Where to go check out electric vehicles

Source: driveelectricearthday.org

Nashua Sustainability Fair & Earth Day Celebration
When: Saturday, April 22, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: Nashua Public Library parking lot, 6 Hartshorn Ave., Nashua
Cost: Free admission
Visit: nashualibrary.org/attend/sustainability-fair
Co-sponsored by the City of Nashua Division of Public Health and Community Services and the Nashua Public Library, this free community event will bring together dozens of local exhibitors to celebrate Earth Day, including nonprofits working in different areas of sustainability like clean energy, farming and environmental justice. There will also be an electric vehicle showcase with more than half a dozen makes and models, whose owners may offer test drives or rides at their discretion, plus an electric yard equipment showcase, games, crafts, food trucks, raffle prizes, a bike repair clinic and a thrift fashion show at noon.

Gilmanton Earth Day Celebration
When: Saturday, April 22, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: Gilmanton Year Round Library, 1385 Route 140, Gilmanton
Cost: Free admission
Visit: gyrla.org
In partnership with the Gilmanton Energy Committee, the Gilmanton Year Round Library, New Hampshire Sierra Club, Univix Power Solutions and the New Hampshire Electric Co-op, this free event will feature an electric vehicle showcase, solar panel and energy storage tours at the library, and a 2 p.m. all-ages hike on the nearby trails.

Durham Earth Day Celebration and EV Showcase
When: Saturday, April 22, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: 66 Main St., Durham
Cost:
Free admission
Visit: ci.durham.nh.us
The town of Durham’s annual Earth Day celebration will feature a showcase of more than 15 electric vehicles by local owners, including some of the latest models. Some may even offer test drives or rides to attendees. There will also be displays supporting sustainable agriculture, plus information on home energy improvements and rebates, and details promoting composting as a means to reduce landfill waste.

Drive Electric Expo at the Monadnock Earth Day Festival
When: Saturday, April 22, noon to 4 p.m.
Where:
Whitney Brothers parking area (adjacent to the Monadnock Food Co-op), 93 Railroad St., Keene
Cost: Free admission
Visit: monadnockfood.coop
The Drive Electric Expo is happening as part of the Earth Day festival hosted by the Monadnock Food Co-op, the future site of southwestern New Hampshire’s first public electric vehicle fast chargers. Attendees will have the chance to see more than a dozen EVs, representing several different automakers and ranging from sub-compact cars to sedans, SUVs and trucks. Vehicle owners will be on hand to share their knowledge and enthusiasm and answer questions. Many also offer test drives and rides. A series of five-minute mini-talks is scheduled throughout the afternoon, covering everything from home and public charging to long road trips with an EV, electric police vehicles and financial incentives to reduce EV costs. There will also be informational literature to pick up and a free drawing for a chance to win prizes.

Lowell Drives Electric
When: Saturday, April 29, noon to 4 p.m.
Where: Heritage Farm Ice Cream, 163 Pawtucket Blvd., Lowell, Mass.
Cost: Free admission
Visit: facebook.com/lowelldriveselectric
Just over the state line in Lowell, Mass., Heritage Farm Ice Cream on Pawtucket Boulevard will be the site of an electric vehicle showcase with more than two dozen makes and models to check out. Vehicle owners will be on hand to answer questions from attendees about their experiences, and some may offer to take their cars for test drives.

Featured photo: Photo courtesy of Merrimack Solar.

News & Notes 23/04/20

Art school leaves Manch

New England College will be relocating its Institute of Art and Design program from Manchester to its main campus in Henniker starting in the fall of 2023. According to a community update from NEC President Wayne Lesperance posted on the college’s website, the consolidation is part of the school’s efforts to create a more integrated campus community and to offer students greater access to the resources available on its main campus. “Covid-19 depressed participation in the arts and arts education nationally,” Lesperance said in the update. “Unfortunately, NEC was not immune to this downward trend. With this move to unify our academic offerings in Henniker, NEC re-doubles its commitment to its art and design students and faculty, and the arts generally, by dedicating facilities and creating new opportunities in a welcoming setting.” NEC’s Institute of Art and Design is the successor to the New Hampshire Institute of Art (NHIA), which merged with the college several years ago. A new “Art Village” on the Henniker campus will provide dedicated spaces for art and design students to work and collaborate, as well as a new theater in NEC’s Putnam Center for the Performing Arts for students studying performing arts. NEC will continue to hold events at its galleries and assembly space at French Hall in Manchester, according to the update.

Bio-pest control

The University of New Hampshire’s team of New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station scientists has published research in Environmental Entomology on the role of annual insectary plants as habitats for syrphid flies. According to a press release, the team studied flowering plants grown to attract, feed and shelter syrphids, also known as hover or flower flies, which are known to act as biological pest controls, consuming large numbers of common pests, like aphids. The research revealed that sweet alyssum, a low-growing cool-season annual in the Brassicaceae plant family, as well as buckwheat, dill and cilantro attracted and maintained significant numbers of syrphid flies. “We’ll use this information as a springboard to study the behavior and life histories of the key players in our vegetable agroecosystems, which will lead to better landscape management techniques and more sustainable pest management down the line,” Anna Wallingford, NHAES scientist, research assistant professor in UNH’s agriculture, nutrition and food systems department and co-author of the published article, said in the release. The team is considering further study to investigate if and how native perennial plants could be used to attract syrphids.

Autism Acceptance month

Applied ABC, an ABA autism therapy company in Manchester, invites the public to its Autism Acceptance month celebration at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium, home of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats Minor League Baseball team, on Saturday, April 22, from 1 to 3 p.m. The free event will feature booths set up across the stadium and field as well as ABA games and activities that promote social, cognitive and motor skills in children with autism, according to an email from the organizer. Visit appliedabc.com or call 403-3741 to learn more.

New Chair

Greater Nashua Mental Health has named James Jordan its new Chairman of the Board of Directors. According to a press release, Jordan has been a New Hampshire resident for more than 25 years and has decades of business experience, including having worked for Verizon Communications for 31 years before starting his own telecommunications consulting business. He currently runs Adaptive Techniques & Concepts, a consulting firm for large to mid-size companies across the country.

Drug take-back

The DEA’s bi-annual National Drug Take Back Day is happening on Saturday, April 22. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., New Hampshire town and city police departments will be hosting collection sites across the state for people to drop off their unused, unwanted or expired prescription medications, which can pose public safety risks such as accidental poisoning, overdoses and abuse when not properly discarded. The DEA will accept pills, patches and vaping devices and cartridges, but not liquids, needles, sharps or devices with lithium batteries. For a collection site locator to find a drop-off point near you, visit dea.gov/takebackday.

Looking for lead

The Nashua Regional Planning Commission and the Loon Preservation Committee are calling for anglers in the Nashua Region to check their tackle boxes for illegal lead tackle and dispose of it responsibly at the Household Hazardous Waste Event on Saturday, April 22, from 8 a.m. to noon, at 25 Crown St., in Nashua. The use of small lead tackle has been banned in New Hampshire due to its negative impact on the threatened loon population; according to a press release, lead tackle ingestion is the primary cause of documented adult loon deaths and accounted for 38.5 percent of documented adult loon deaths in the state between 1989 and 2022. There are a number of tests that can be done to identify tackle that is made of lead: according to Harry Vogel, LPC’s Senior Biologist and Executive Director, “When rubbed on paper, lead will leave a gray mark. Lead is soft, so lead tackle can be easily dented with a fingernail or with pliers.” If in doubt, consider the age of the tackle, Vogel added; tackle bought in 2010 or before is likely to be made of lead. The Household Hazardous Waste Event is open to residents of Amherst, Brookline, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, Merrimack, Milford, Mont Vernon, Nashua, Pelham, and Windham, with a fee of $15 per vehicle. Find a list of accepted items at nashuarpc.org/hhw. Additionally, LPC and the New Hampshire Department of Fish and Game are offering a Lead Tackle Buyback Program in which anglers who turn in one ounce or more of illegal lead tackle at participating local tackle shops can receive a $10 voucher for that shop. For a list of participating shops, visit loonsafe.org.

Road work is underway on Interstate 393 between Concord and Chichester, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation announced, which includes ramps for exits 1, 2 and 3 and will require intermittent lane closures this summer. The work is part of a $500,000 sign replacement expected to be complete by mid-October. Real-time traffic news can be found at newengland511.org, and travelers can sign up for “My511” alerts to stay informed about incidents and construction work.

Manchester Community College (1066 Front St.) is holding an open House on Thursday, April 27, from 4 to 6 p.m. Prospective students are invited to visit the campus, meet with faculty and staff, and learn about financial aid and transfer opportunities with the New Hampshire Dual Admission Program. Attendees are encouraged to bring their transcripts to have previous credits evaluated for transfer. Visit mccnh.edu/admissions/openhouse or call 206-8000.

United Way of Greater Nashua is inviting people to dispose of their unwanted electronics at its e-recycling event, United w(E)-Recycle, Friday, April 21, through Sunday, April 23, at its location at 20 Broad St. in Nashua, with drop-off times Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. According to a press release, proceeds support the Greater Nashua School Supply Pantry. Email info@unitedwaynashua.org or visit unitedwaynashua.org for a list of accepted items and suggested donation amounts for their disposal.

New York storyteller

Nashua Center for the Arts welcomes Suzanne Vega

On her 2020 live album, An Evening of New York Songs and Stories, Suzanne Vega covers Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” and talks about how seeing him perform while she was in college changed her view of rock music. Vega was then a folkie, deep into Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. “To me, rock ’n’ roll was that thing that other people do,” she said in a recent phone interview.

Reed’s “blunt, graphic depictions” of New York life grabbed her. “I thought, wow, you can write about these things. When I first saw it, I found it repulsive; then I became fascinated. … I wanted to take it in so I could do it myself.”

On songs like “Tom’s Diner,” “Frank and Eva,” “New York is a Woman” and the poignant “Anniversary,” an ode to 9/11, Vega is a vital chronicler and erudite ambassador of her home city. On April 15 she’ll take the stage at the just-opened Nashua Center for the Arts, the second nationally touring act to play there. It’s also one of her first New Hampshire shows in a while.

The evening will also feature selections from Lover, Beloved, the film version of which premiered last year at South by Southwest. Written by Vega, the one-woman show began in 2011 as Carson McCullers Talks About Love. It’s a work in progress, she said. “In time, I’d love to see a transgender actor play her, especially in Act 1.”

Vega discovered the author of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and The Ballad of the Sad Café when a musical theater teacher assigned the task of dressing up and taking questions as someone in the arts who was no longer alive.

“I’d seen a photograph of Carson McCullers, and I thought to myself … I could probably play that woman, whoever she is,” she recalled. Then she read the Southern Gothic writer’s biography. “I loved her character, I loved the fact that she was this young woman in the 1940s with super-liberal politics and a precocious, freakish talent for writing. She was so fearless in her imagination; and I also loved that she drank and smoked like Hemingway.”

McCullers was also hopelessly drawn to the Big Apple, a topic Vega covers on “New York is My Destination” from Lover, Beloved. “New York is where I will be from,” she sings implacably. “New York is made for grander things / Just. Like. Me.”

Vega’s highest-charting hit is “Luka,” the second single from her 1987 album Solitude Standing. For years, she told anyone who asked that the story of an abused child came from her imagination, but 2021, Jay Lustig, a writer who was working on a series for The Museum of New York, approached her for an interview. Their initial conversation would lead to Vega declaring for the first time, “There was abuse in my family; I am actually Luka.”

She said Lustig approached his task as a historian, not a journalist. “He said, ‘I know your secret, and I know this because I watched the videos of your stepfather’s memorial, and I saw your sister’s speech. So I know that you’re an abused child.’ He just put it to me bluntly that way.”

Lustig offered her the choice of talking for publication with her abuse as the premise or walking away.

“I thought, OK, finally, I have someone who’s gonna force my hand,” she recalled. “There’s no point in saying my usual thing which is — I don’t lie, I say, ‘Yes, there was a boy, his name was Luka, he lived upstairs from me, he was not abused, but I’ve known children who were abused over the years.’ Since he’d presented it very thoughtfully and sensitively, I thought to myself, I don’t think I’ll ever get another chance like this to actually delve into it, and so that interview remains a very special moment in time.”

Surprisingly, response to her revelation was muted.

“I thought that this was a story that would go viral, everybody would be asking questions and carrying on. Almost nobody talks about it, it’s kind of stunning,” she said. “I did get letters from people who were abused as children, saying, ‘We already knew’” — though at most three people over the years had ever intimated they suspected.

“People close to me said, are you going to make a formal announcement? I thought, there’s no reason,” she continued. “I mean, that is the formal announcement. It’s not up to me to push it along, it’s there. If people want to talk about it, I’m into it. If they want to talk about other things, that’s fine too.”

Suzanne Vega – An Intimate Evening of Songs and Stories
When: Saturday, April 15, 8 p.m.
Where: Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua
Tickets: $49 and up at etix.com

Featured photo: Suzanne Vega. Courtesy photo.

Air (R)

Middle-aged dudes in the mid 1980s pin their career futures and their hopes for the financial future of Nike on a young NBA rookie named Michael Jordan in Air.

I feel like even the movie is somewhat conscious of the fact that it is not the story of a legendary athlete or even, King Richard style, the struggles of that legendary athlete’s parent but the story of some guys who really wanted to capitalize on the status of a hopefully legendary athlete to boost their basketball shoe line. The movie is more stakes-adjacent than stakes-having.

Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) is unimpressed with the meh candidates Nike is looking at to rep their unpopular line of basketball shoes in the coming season. Adidas and Converse are cool and that’s where the big-name players go — the Larry Birds and the Magic Johnsons — including Jordan, whose college career has made him an official One to Watch. Nike marketing guy Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman) thinks Sonny should just stick to the brief from company head Phil Knight (Ben Affleck) and use the limited funds given to the basketball division to sponsor three or four lesser lights. But Sonny wants to bet the house on Jordan, even if, as Jordan’s agent David Falk (Chris Messina) tells him, Jordan is almost certain to go with Adidas.

Sonny breaks with the protocol of this type of deal and goes around Falk, traveling to North Carolina to show up at the Jordans’ home. There he meets Michael’s dad, James Jordan (Julius Tennon), and his mom, Deloris Jordan (Viola Davis), who seems to be the true gatekeeper for Michael’s career. She admires Sonny’s persistence just enough to have a brief meeting with him at their house and then later she decides — over her son’s objections — to listen to Nike’s official pitch to Michael Jordan at the company’s Oregon headquarters. (No “Michael Jordan” really appears on screen except as a hazy figure, usually turned away from the camera, who is with his family during business meetings or as the actual guy in historical footage.)

The movie spends not quite enough time with Peter Moore (Matthew Maher), the man who designs the first Air Jordan prototype that the Nike team — which also includes Howard White (Chris Tucker) — hopes to use to convince Michael to pick Nike. His scenes include a fun element of the shoe’s design, which was a purposeful decision to make the shoe more colorful than the NBA technically allowed, with Nike offering to pay the shoe fines, a factor they even planned to work into their marketing. Personally, I found some bits about the artistry of the shoe a fun part of this movie about the making of a hugely culturally significant athletic shoe line. Like, more sneakers in this sneaker movie, would be my preference.

I think we’re maybe supposed to think the heart of this movie is Damon’s ostentatiously schlubby Sonny, with his genuine desire to help Michael Jordan become a legend and his “Gil really needs a sale” energy. And maybe a little bit of our heart is supposed to be with Rob and his sad divorced-dad tale of bribing his daughter with Nikes. I don’t think even the movie believes we’re rooting for Phil Knight, who is giving flaky proto-tech-bro vibes. But come on, with no real Michael Jordan in the picture, the heart of the movie is Davis’ Deloris Jordan, who knows the score when it comes to both her son’s abilities and the way the world is going to want things from him. Casting Davis makes Deloris an easy character to care about — Davis brings weight and substance to the sort of dippy story of, not unlike Tetris, a licensing deal.

Without Davis, I think this movie would feel too lightweight, too lacking in stuff to fill out its nearly two-hour run time. With Davis, the movie feels just substantial enough to justify being in a theater — but just barely. It felt very similar to me to those HBO historical-events movies, particularly to something like The Late Shift, about the Jay Leno-David Letterman Tonight Show story.

If you are moderately interested in this side story from the career of Michael Jordan, Air is moderately interesting. C+

Rated R for language throughout, according to the MPA on filmratings.com, but probably also to signify to grown-up movie goers that this is a grown-up movie where nothing explodes, which is accurate. Directed by Ben Affleck with a screenplay by Alex Convery, Air is one hour and 51 minutes long and distributed by Amazon Studios, which means that it will eventually show up on Prime Video, though it is slated for a longer theatrical release than originally planned, according to Wikipedia.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (PG)

It’s-a him, Mario, in an animated adventure that really just made me feel some nostalgia for OG Nintendo Mario in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Not unlike AppleTV+’s Tetris, which somehow seems like the mashup of the two theatrical releases I watched this week, The Super Mario Bros. Movie made me think more about the video game from which it originated — in my case the console and Game Boy versions of the game in 1990something — than anything happening in the movie itself. I was the most casual of video and arcade game players back in the 20th century so it’s interesting how much both games still were part of the wider culture.

Here, we meet brothers Mario (voice of Chris Pratt) and Luigi (more engagingly voiced by Charlie Day), who have just started a plumbing business and sunk all their money into a pretty great TV ad, chock full of “Mama Mia!” type accents from these two otherwise nonspecific American-accented guys. I mention this only because the ad is sort of charmingly goofy in a way most of the rest of this movie isn’t.

After their first job goes wrong because of an angry dog, they try to “save Brooklyn” by fixing some water main problems in the road. Instead, though, they get sucked into a, let’s say, alternate dimension and, while traveling along a rainbow thing I’m just going to call bifrost, are separated. Luigi is flung into a lava world ruled by Bowser (voice of Jack Black), sort of a large battle-turtle intent on capturing all domains and using what Wikipedia tells me is a Super Star to gain invincibility. Mario lands in Mushroom Kingdom, which is sad because he doesn’t like mushrooms, but it’s a generally brighter happier place even if it too is under threat of invasion by Bowser.

Mushroom Kingdom’s Princess Peach (voice of Anya Taylor-Joy) plans to get the support of King Cranky Kong’s (voice of Fred Armisen) army to face Bowser and his army, which leads to Mario fighting the king’s son Donkey Kong (voice of Seth Rogen) and a fun sorta-friendship between the two, which was one of this movie’s better elements. Mario wants to defeat Bowser to get Luigi back — their brotherly relationship is also a nice element but, as they spend most of the movie apart, we don’t get nearly enough of it.

There is a flatness to this movie — it’s colorful and action-packed, but there just isn’t a lot to grab on to in terms of the story or the characters we spend the most time with. Pratt’s Mario is kind of a nothing despite being at the center of this story. He doesn’t have the personality of, say, Pratt’s Emmet in the Lego movies. His adventure partners Donkey Kong and Luigi bring a little something to their roles— the notes of sweetness and weirdness I think you need to make this kind of thing work — but not enough to give the whole movie life. Princess Peach is also kind of an empty character. I realize this is a cartoon based on a video game, but I feel like the movie just hangs it all on the admittedly eye-catching, gameplay-riffing-on visuals without giving the movie even the, uhm, depth of, like, the Trolls movies or that odd noir Pikachu.

The motivations of Bowser (to marry Princess Peach whether she likes it or not) are a little disturbing and a bunch of adorable creatures are threatened with slaughter but this is otherwise probably a fairly older-elementary-schooler acceptable movie. It’s just not a particularly memorable one. C+

Rated PG for action and mild violence, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic and co-directed by Pierre Leduc and Fabien Polack with a screenplay by Matthew Fogel, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is an hour and 32 minutes long and is distributed in theaters by Universal Studios.

Featured photo: The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Spring into deliciousness

Great New England specialty food and artisan show returns

More than 150 exhibitors will gather inside the Hampshire Dome in Milford for the Great New England Spring Specialty Food & Artisan Show — now in its sixth year, the two-day event is a prime destination for food lovers, with all kinds of products available for sale and sampling. It’s happening on Saturday, April 15, and Sunday, April 16, and will also feature live music, food trucks outside, children’s activities, door prize-winning opportunities and more.

A wide variety of sweet and savory items will be available for attendees to try, from honeys, maple products, jams and drink infusions to hot sauces, chocolates, toffees, spice blends, seasonings, salad dressings and much more.
“We really do try to stick to our model of ‘Never the same show twice, but always just as nice,’ and it’s the truth,” show organizer Jody Donohue of GNE Events said. “We’re always changing it up for people, so that every time they come, there’s a variety of different items.”

With Donohue’s recent expansion of the company’s annual events to the Seacoast, she said she has been able to reach a wider range of participating exhibitors. As a result, many of those area artisans and specialty food makers will be coming to Milford for the first time.

“It will be really nice for them to get a new audience, as well as those that attend to see new exhibitors,” she said.

Queen of Whoopies, a multiple first-prize award winner at the annual Maine Whoopie Pie Festival, is expected to attend.

“Her recipe is like how the old Devil Dogs were,” Donohue said. “They are huge whoopie pies, bigger than the palm of your hand.”

The Chocolate Butcher, meanwhile, will be there with its chopped chocolates and truffles.

“They sell more chunks or pieces of chocolate, so you can melt them down for baking purposes as well as just eating them right from the bag,” Donohue said. “We also have the Mill Fudge Factory coming, and then we have Seacoast Pretzel Co., so you can get boxed pretzel nuggets or you can get the regular braided soft pretzel, which is also larger than life.”

This is also the first year 603 Charcuterie will be participating; Donohue said their team will be there offering samples of New Hampshire products as seen on their featured boards, and will provide a demonstration on how to put a board together.

Craft beer and wine will be available for sampling in addition to the food, and a number of other booths will be there, selling home decor, soaps, candles, personal care products and more.

While most of the vendors will be indoors, Donohue said a couple of food trucks and other purveyors will be parked outside the Hampshire Dome, including a coffee truck and a barbecue truck. Live local music will also be featured, both inside and outside.

Attendees will have a chance to win a $100 cash door prize, while $200 worth of scratch tickets — two packages of $100 each — will also be raffled off.

New to this year’s show will be a coloring crayon station for kids, while Donohue said there will also be face painting and cookie decorating.

“We’re keeping it fun, giving the artisans new audiences and giving everybody something to do to get out of the house,” Donohue said.

Sixth annual Great New England Spring Specialty Food & Artisan Show
When: Saturday, April 15, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday, April 16, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: The Hampshire Dome, 34 Emerson Road, Milford
Cost: General admission tickets are $5 per person, valid for both days. Tickets are available in advance online or at the door (free for attendees ages 14 and under). Foods are priced per item.
Visit: gnecraftartisanshows.com/april-spring-show to purchase tickets

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Music and art collide

NH Philharmonic brings Drawn to the Music back for 15th year

For 15 years the New Hampshire Philharmonic has worked with schools across the state, encouraging kids kindergarten through grade 5 to listen to classical music and draw something inspired by it.

“This year we had over 700 drawings from nine schools from all over the state,” said Toni DeGennaro, the executive director of the Philharmonic. “We get the drawings, pick 300 winners and have concerts … on Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m., with each school represented on a certain day.”

Kids who were selected will get a chance to hear the music they listened to, Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, and see the art they created projected on a screen over the orchestra. The artwork is divided evenly across the two performances, so 150 drawings will be featured each show.

Winners of the competition are invited to attend, as well as their parents or guardians and their art or music teacher who helped them with the project.

When it comes to the artwork, DeGennaro said she was impressed to see how creative the students were. Each year the kids are given a series of scenes they use to inspire the artwork. Since Appalachian Spring is a ballet, DeGennaro said, there were more options for scenes.

“We give them scenes, so they picked which ones they wanted to draw,” DeGennaro said. “There’s some of the bride, some of the duel for the bride…. Lots of brides and farmer pictures and it’s really cute.”

Drawn to the Music isn’t going to be the only competition where winners will celebrate, said conductor and music director Mark Latham. Evan Huang, a high school senior at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., will be performing Piano Concerto No. 2 by Frederic Chopin.

“It’s very romantic and full of various emotions; he plays it extraordinarily sensitively,” said Latham. “He deserved first place of the competition.”

Huang was the grand prize winner of Sempre Music Competition in 2022, a national competition in which students of all ages compete for a chance to solo with the New Hampshire Philharmonic, among other prizes.

While classical music can seem intimidating at first, Latham said his main goal with the Phil is to make it more accessible to every generation.

“Some think classical music is stuffy and my philosophy is try to make it a great time,” Latham said. “If [kids] want to jabber or applaud at the wrong time, if you let loose on how you feel about something, that’s excellent.”

After the concert, kids will be invited on stage for “touch an instrument,” the Phil’s take on touch-a-truck, to help expose young children to music and to make it more inspiring, DeGennaro said.

DeGennaro said that Drawn to Music is one of her favorite events, not only to see young people engaged with classical music but also because of the awe and excitement that she sees on kids’ faces.

“We are so kid-friendly, if kids are running around in the halls, that’s great. We’ll drown them out with the music,” DeGennaro said. “Just the sound of the 70-piece orchestra in that little concert hall is mesmerizing. It’s a great experience for them.”

Drawn to the Music
When: Saturday, April 15, and Sunday, April 16, at 2 p.m.
Where: Siefert Performing Arts Center, 44 Geremonty Drive, Salem
Price: Adults are $30, seniors are $25, students are $8, and students of Salem are $5
Visit: nhphil.org

Featured photo: Drawn to the Music projection 2018-2019. Courtesy photo.

10 terrific trails

Great spots for hiking – as picked by Hippo readers

We asked, you voted, and now it’s time to hit the trails.

Among the more than 100 other “Bests” in this year’s Readers’ Poll, we asked you to name the best hiking spot in southern New Hampshire. The answers we received were diverse and included everywhere from moderately challenging mountain hikes to flatter, nature walk-type experiences.

What follows are key details from the top 10 highest voted hiking spots, in order, as shared by city and town planners, state and town park personnel, trail guidebook authors and local hiking aficionados. Trail terrain, interesting features and points of interest are all included. We even threw in the closest local ice cream shop to each, for afterward when you make that next trip outdoors.

For those trails listed within New Hampshire’s state parks system, reservations are highly recommended, especially during peak season, as visitors will be turned away if the parks are full.

Looking for your next new favorite hiking spot? Read on for some ideas as voted by readers.

1. Mount Monadnock

169 Poole Road, Jaffrey, 532-8862, nhstateparks.org/visit/state-parks/monadnock-state-park

Scaling 3,165 feet at its summit, Mount Monadnock is one of the most frequently hiked mountains in the Northeast. The mountain, located within Mount Monadnock State Park in the towns of Jaffrey and Dublin, was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1987.

Kimball Rexford of Goffstown, a freelance web developer and avid hiker who runs TrailsNH.com, said he finds Mount Monadnock to almost always be “neck and neck” with Mount Washington in terms of the most frequently searched trails. Mount Monadnock State Park is also a popular camping destination, especially during peak season.

About the trails: The park’s main headquarters are accessed at the end of Poole Road in Jaffrey, which is also where the two most commonly hiked trails to the summit start — the White Dot trail and the White Cross trail. Rexford said he recommends ascending the mountain using the White Dot trail and descending using the White Cross trail. The loop is about 4 miles long round-trip, or roughly three to four hours of steady hiking.

“It’s kind of classic New England hiking,” Rexford said. “I think going up the White Dot is a little easier, because it’s a little bit steeper in some spots. So when you get to those little steep sections, it’s easier to use your hands, whereas going downhill you’ve got to sit on your butt.”

Closest ice cream: Station 16 Ice Cream (31 Peterborough St., Jaffrey, find them on Facebook) is about 4 miles away from Mount Monadnock State Park’s headquarters and is scheduled to open for the season on April 14, offering multiple flavors of hard ice cream and soft serve.

Points of interest: Mount Monadnock is known for its barren, isolated summit, which features stunning panoramic views on clear days.

“You can see the skyline of Boston, and on really, really clear days, mainly in the wintertime, you can see Mount Washington from the summit,” said Tara Blaney, South Regional Supervisor for New Hampshire State Parks.

Off another popular access point called the Old Toll Road is the site of the Halfway House, where Blaney said a hotel once stood dating back to the 1800s.

“There’s no longer a building up there, but there is a sign of some kind … and people carve their initials in rocks, but at that location and all over the summit,” she said.

2. Mount Major

875 Mt. Major Hwy. (Route 11), Alton Bay, forestsociety.org/mtmajor

Mount Major reaches an elevation of 1,786 feet. It’s located on the far eastern edge of the Belknap Range and is known for its panoramic views of Lake Winnipesaukee.

“It’s a destination that seems to get a lot of new users every year,” said Matt Scaccia, recreation and community relations manager for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, which has conserved several parcels of land on the mountain. “While Mount Major is a consistent favorite among more experienced hikers, it is also a common gateway for people looking to try their hand at exploring the outdoors. For some hikers we hear it is the first time they have climbed a mountain.”

About the trails: There are several trails that lead to the summit, and the main access point is the signed parking lot on Route 11 in Alton.

Trailheads include the Main trail and the Boulder Loop trail, with round-trip hike options ranging between 3 and 3.4 miles, depending on which routes you choose.

“Personally, I typically take the Main trail, then follow the Brook trail, which is a somewhat gentler approach, but it’s slightly longer,” Scaccia said. “The Main trail is pretty steep in some sections near the summit, especially if you’re hiking down from the top.”

Closest ice cream: Drive for just 4 miles south down Route 11 and you’ll come across Stillwells Ice Cream of Alton Bay (18 Mt. Major Hwy., 875-0200, stillwellsicecream.com), open seasonally and serving multiple flavors of Richardson’s Ice Cream, of Middleton, Mass.

Points of interest: Mount Major’s primary attraction is its view of the southern end of Lake Winnipesaukee from the summit. But another interesting feature is the remains of a stone hut known as “Phippen’s Hut,” named after the late former owner, George Phippen.

“It was originally a resting shelter, and there’s a stone outline of where it was,” Scaccia said. “Evidently, the roof blew off in the 1920s, but visitors still enjoy exploring its remains when they are at the summit. In terms of man-made features, that’s the main one hikers associate with the mountain.”

3. Mine Falls Park

Whipple Street, Nashua, 589-3370, nashuanh.gov

Located in the heart of Nashua, this 325-acre park is bordered on the north by the Nashua River and on the south by the city’s Mill Pond and canal system. It’s filled with forests, wetlands and open fields, and includes a total of seven access points, one of which also features a boat launch.

“Where Nashua is a city, it’s like a hidden gem where you can leave the city and go into the woods,” said Pam Anderson, a member of the volunteer-run Mine Falls Park Advisory Committee. “You’re right in the woods, but you’re only a few steps away from being in the city. Even if you’re at work and you want to take a break for lunch, you can go and take a little walk, or you could be there for a long time.”

About the trails: All seven access points lead to interconnecting trails of varying distance and terrain within the park that are color-coded. Some are paved, while others are dirt paths.

“All of them intertwine,” Anderson said. “We have a couple of Boy Scout troops that have even made the markers so that you can follow them. … You can take some that are only a mile [to] a mile and a half. Some go a little bit farther. You can do the whole entire trip [across the park] and it would be about 5 miles, or you could take two routes that connect.”

Closest ice cream: Roughly 4 miles to the north and east of Mine Falls Park is The Big 1 Ice Cream Stand (185 Concord St., Nashua, thebig1icecream.com), which opened for the season on Feb. 25 and serves dozens of flavors of Richardson’s Ice Cream, of Middleton, Mass.

Points of interest: Mine Falls Park features a variety of amenities. In addition to the boat launch off Riverside Street, there is a sports complex that can be easily accessed from the Whipple Street entrance, which has six soccer fields and a softball field.

There is also a historic gatehouse by the Riverside Street entrance, which was constructed in 1886 as part of the park’s canal system, a brochure from the city’s Parks & Recreation Department shows. In 2009 it received the New Hampshire Preservation Achievement award.

4. Uncanoonuc Mountains

300 Mountain Road, Goffstown, goffstowntrails.com/pdf/Uncanoonuc-Trails-2017.pdf

The Uncanoonucs are a pair of small peaks in Goffstown — the North peak, at an elevation of 1,324 feet, is the highest point in the town, while the South peak rises to 1,321 feet.

About the trails: Both peaks have a series of interconnecting trails with multiple access points that reach the summits. Among the most popular routes on either of the Uncanoonucs, Rexford said, is the White Dot trail on the North peak.

“A lot of people will just go up and back White Dot,” he said. “[The trail] is steep … but the view from the top is just fantastic. … It’s a pretty straightforward hike that gives you a great view of Manchester down into the valley, and it won’t take you all day. For me, it’s the perfect after-work hike.”

Of the two, Rexford said the North peak offers more of a natural, outdoor experience. The South peak, meanwhile, is known for having several radio and television broadcasting towers, and was also once home to a ski lift in the middle part of the 20th century.

Both peaks share some trailheads in common, while others are devoted to either one or the other.

“If you’re coming from Goffstown Village, you’ll take a left onto Mountain Road and the White Dot trail is the first one that you come to,” Rexford said.

Closest ice cream: Less than 3 miles to the north of the Uncanoonucs is Devriendt Farm (178 S. Mast Road, Goffstown, 497-2793, devriendtfarm.com), which is due to open sometime later this month or in early May, serving more than two dozen flavors of ice cream.

Points of interest: A few minutes up the White Dot trail is a unique cave-like structure.

“A granite slab slid and created a big overhanging,” Rexford said. “You can look underneath it, and it kind of looks like a little cave, which is interesting.”

The Incline trail, on the South peak, is accessed from Mountain Base Road.

“On the east side of the South peak, there is a foundation from an old hotel, a small hotel that was built in the early ’30s,” said Rick Silverberg, leadership training coordinator and past chair of the Appalachian Mountain Club’s New Hampshire chapter. “In that area, there’s a rather unique view over toward the river and the Mill buildings in downtown Manchester. … Some of the folks that I went up there with originally, 40 years ago, told me that when you look from that position, it doesn’t look a whole lot different now than it did back when the Mills were still operating.”

5. Pulpit Rock Conservation Area

New Boston Road, Bedford, plcnh.org/pulpit-rock-trails

Owned by the Town of Bedford, the 338-acre Pulpit Rock Conservation Area features 10 marked trails totalling more than 3 miles. The main access point and parking lot are on New Boston Road.

About the trails: Rexford said the Kennard trail is a mostly flat, easy-going route that is among the Pulpit Rock Conservation Area’s most frequently used trails.

“The trail starts out across a swamp. It’s quite pretty,” he said. “It’s kind of an elevated, wooden trail for a little bit through the swamp, and it’s just a flat, very pretty hike.”

Travel south on the Kennard trail for just over half a mile before it branches off into several other trails. One of those, the Pulpit Brook Trail, eventually connects at the other end through Amherst to the Joppa Hill Conservation Area. The eponymous Pulpit Rock is near the center of where several of the trails interconnect.

Closest ice cream: The Inside Scoop (260 Wallace Road, Bedford, 471-7009, theinsidescoopnh.com) is roughly 6 miles east of the conservation area and serves more than 30 flavors of Richardson’s Ice Cream, of Middleton, Mass.

Points of interest: Other than Pulpit Rock itself, there is a small ravine just off to the south.

“It’s a little rugged to get down to, but it’s neat to see,” said Ken MacGray of Concord, an avid hiker and Appalachian Mountain Club guidebook author. “This time of year, it’s actually probably pretty neat with all the snow melt, because there’s a little waterfall that flows down to the ravine.”

The best way to view the Pulpit is from its base, accessed from the Ravine Trail. The Ravine Trail, which is damp most of the year, also follows Pulpit Brook through other interesting rock formations, according to Kathleen Ports, associate planner for the Town of Bedford.

6. Pack Monadnock

Miller State Park, 13 Miller Park Road, Peterborough, 924-3672, nhstateparks.org/visit/state-parks/miller-state-park

Established in 1891, Miller State Park is the oldest state park in New Hampshire, according to Blaney — it was dedicated in memory of Gen. James Miller, a Peterborough native who fought in the Battle of Lundy’s Lane in the War of 1812. The park is also home to Pack Monadnock, the highest point in Hillsborough County at 2,290 feet.

A paved 1.3-mile-long auto road leading to Pack Monadnock’s summit, accessed from Route 101 in Peterborough, is open to cars. Reservations are available online and are especially recommended during peak season.

About the trails: Three main hiking trails all lead to the summit of Pack Monadnock, Blaney said — two of them start right at the base of the auto road.

“The trail on the east side of the mountain is the Marion Davis trail, and then the trail on the west side is the Wapack trail,” she said. “The Wapack trail is a 21.5-mile long-distance trail. It starts down at Mount Watatic in Ashburnham, [Mass.], and then it stops at North Pack Monadnock, which is in Greenfield, so it goes over lots of little small mountains.”

Closest ice cream: Drive west of Pack Monadnock on Route 101 for about 5 miles to reach Ava Marie Handmade Chocolates & Ice Cream (43 Grove St., Peterborough, 924-5993, avamariechocolates.com), which scoops around 20 flavors of ice cream year-round and up to 40 flavors during peak season in the summer months.

Points of interest: Like from Mount Monadnock, Blaney said Boston’s skyline is visible from Pack Monadnock’s summit. On crystal clear days you can even climb to the top of the fire tower on the summit for a 360-degree view of Mount Washington.
There is also the Pack Monadnock Raptor Observatory, part of a joint effort with New Hampshire Audubon and the Harris Center for Conservation Education, which is staffed daily from Sept. 1 through mid-November.

“It’s really just a platform and an area where people can go and observe different raptors, because in the fall they are migrating and always flying over this area,” Blaney said. “The Harris Center and Audubon folks come out and they do raptor counts, just to keep monitoring the populations of the birds. Lots of people come out to that, and you can learn to identify the different birds and ask questions, so that’s kind of a cool thing.”

7. Marjory Swope Park Trails

Long Pond Road, Concord, concordnh.gov

Marjory Swope Park is dedicated to the memory of the late Concord environmentalist Marjory Mason Swope — her husband, John Swope, gifted the land for the 77-acre park for the city. It’s open year-round for activities like hiking, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing.

About the trails: The trail system within Marjory Swope Park consists of a 1.5-mile-long loop trail that is accessed from Long Pond Road.

“This is one of our more popular trails,” Concord assistant city planner Beth Fenstermacher said of the park’s main loop trail. “It’s got a little bit of terrain, but it’s pretty easy for most people. There are some sections that are a little steep, but they are short, so we find that most people can navigate it pretty easily.”

While the loop is a popular route by itself, there are also a few other connecting trails throughout. One connects to the Winant Park trail system to the east, while a connecting trail in the other direction eventually brings you to the area of Carter Hill Orchard. Two trails also lead to the summit of the 712-foot Jerry Hill.

Closest ice cream: Just under 5 miles to the north of Marjory Swope Park is Frekey’s Dairy Freeze (74 Fisherville Road, Concord, 228-5443, frekeysdairyfreeze.com), which recently celebrated the grand opening of its 40th season in business on April 1. The stand serves more than two dozen flavors of Gifford’s ice cream.

Points of interest: Marjory Swope Park’s main loop trail has several vista points, including of the southwestern part of the state from the summit of Jerry Hill. One of the other most notable vista points features views of Penacook Lake, the city’s drinking water reservoir.

“We maintain it so that that view remains open all the time. … You can get off the path and look out over the water,” Fenstermacher said. “It’s a really nice spot. We’ve done yoga hikes and book club meetings up there.”

8. Oak Hill Trails

Shaker Road, Concord, concordnh.gov

The Oak Hill trail network features several interconnecting routes — Fenstermacher said its main access point is on Shaker Road, but there are other small parking areas on Oak Hill and Hot Hole Pond roads.

About the trails: Unlike at Marjory Swope Park, where the trails are only identified by color, Fenstermacher said the trails within the Oak Hill network are all named. Most of them are under 1 mile long by themselves, but many pick up at the ends of other connecting trails.

“A lot of people pick their favorite loop and that seems to be the one that they always do, so you can make a series of 2-mile loops or 3-mile loops and it’s all within the same trail system,” she said. “You could do 7 miles out there easily if you start at the main parking lot.”

Closest ice cream: Head to Arnie’s Place (164 Loudon Road, Concord, 228-3225, arniesplace.com), which is roughly 5 miles to the south of the Oak Hill trail network. The shop reopened for the season on April 1 and offers dozens of flavors of homemade ice cream.

Points of interest: The longest standalone trail in the Oak Hill network is the 2-mile-long Tower trail, which runs east just over the town line into Loudon and features a fire tower at the end.

“It’s a straight shot and then you can go and climb up the fire tower,” Fenstermacher said. “It’s nice if you want to be out there for a couple of hours. It’s kind of like a destination point for people.”

Silverberg said he especially likes to hike the 0.8-mile-long Luti trail, which can be accessed from the parking lot on Oak Hill Road.

“It goes up pretty quickly through several old homestead sites that are on the side of the hill,” he said, “and you can see the old stone walls and the foundations from the old cellar holes from where the houses were. They are all houses that were built in the 1700s, originally, long since gone.”


9. Pawtuckaway State Park

7 Pawtuckaway Road, Nottingham, 895-3031, nhstateparks.org/visit/state-parks/pawtuckaway-state-park

At right around 5,500 acres, this is one of the largest state parks in New Hampshire. There are lots of opportunities for hiking on Pawtuckaway’s many trails, and there is also an onsite campground, a boat launch and a large family beach on the park’s lake.

About the trails: Blaney said Pawtuckaway State Park is home to a series of three peaks — the north mountain is the tallest, at about 1,011 feet, while the south mountain comes in at 908 feet and the middle mountain at 800 feet.

“The trails to get to these summits are relatively short, and I would consider them very easy,” she said. “The south mountain has a fire tower on it, which is cool. So again, that has a couple of view points and then if you climb up the fire tower you can see all around you. … [The] middle mountain has a nice outlook in one direction looking north, and then the north mountain actually has the least views.”

The park’s Mountain trail, she said, begins at a sign to the left just past Mountain Pond. Another popular trail is called the Fundy trail, which begins across the road from the entrance to the group picnic and camping areas and borders Burnham’s Marsh.

“It goes along a really large marsh area, so there’s a good chance to see lots of wildlife that you might encounter in a marsh,” Blaney said.

Closest ice cream: Head south of Pawtuckaway State Park for about 3 to 4 miles to reach Stillwells One Stop Ice Cream Shop (63 Route 27, Raymond, 895-1100, stillwellsicecream.com), open year round and serving multiple flavors of Richardson’s Ice Cream, of Middleton, Mass.

Points of interest: One of the best-known features at Pawtuckaway State Park is its large boulder field.

“It’s a pretty big area full of glacial erratics, which are big boulders dropped from when the glaciers retreated [during] the Ice Age,” Blaney said. “There’s little caves that have formed from the moving rocks, so that’s a super-popular location as well.”

10. Welch-Dickey Loop Trail

Orris Road, Thornton, fs.usda.gov/recarea/whitemountain/recarea/?recid=74773

On the southern edge of the White Mountain National Forest, in the town of Thornton, the Welch-Dickey trail is a single ledgy 4.4-mile-long loop around the twin peaks of Mount Welch and Mount Dickey.

“It’s kind of one of the best half-day hikes in the Whites, and it’s definitely one of the best bang-for-your-buck type hikes, because you’re out on open ledges for a lot of the hike, and they’ve got fantastic views,” MacGray said. “It’s all kind of one mountain mass, but there are two named summits. … It’s also a great place for a sunrise or a sunset hike.”

About the trail: The trailhead and main parking area for Welch-Dickey are at Orris Road in Thornton. Rexford said it’s common for most hikers to complete the loop counterclockwise.

“It will be very gradual until you get to your first ledge, which is kind of a big, flat ledge, and then you’ll come up from the back side and look down into the ravine to the road, going into Waterville [Valley],” he said. “It basically feels like you’re going from ledge to ledge, and they are maybe five to 10 minutes apart. It’s an absolutely beautiful hike.”

Although it won’t take you all day to complete, MaccGray said he does consider Welch-Dickey to be a moderately challenging hike.

“There are some potentially difficult sections where there are steep granite slabs,” he said, “but they usually aren’t an issue unless things are wet or icy. That’s the only time you’d really need to use any caution.”

Closest ice cream: Roughly 15 miles southwest of the Welch-Dickey trailhead is M ’n M Scoops (67 Main St., Plymouth, 536-4850, mnmscoops.com), offering a variety of flavors of ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet, sherbet and more.

Points of interest: While the summit of Mount Dickey is wooded, one of the most dominant vista points is from the summit of Mount Welch, MacGray said, where you can see many of the peaks in the White Mountains, including the 4,802-foot Mount Moosilauke to the northwest.

Featured photo: A sunrise hike on Mount Major. Photo by Emily Lord and courtesy of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests

News & Notes 23/04/13

City cleanups

The Manchester Urban Ponds Restoration Program hosts its 24th year of pond and park cleanups, with cleanups scheduled for Saturday, April 22, at Nutts Pond and Precourt Park; Saturday, April 29, at Stevens Pond and Stevens Park; and Saturday, May 6, at Black Brook and Blodget Park. All cleanups run from 9 to 11 a.m., and trash bags, latex gloves and trash pickers will be provided, according to a press release. Visit manchesternh.gov/urbanponds to learn more.

Get outside

Gov. Chris Sununu has proclaimed April 17 through April 23 “Outside For 5 Week” to recognize a new pledge campaign launched by the New Hampshire Environmental Educators, in partnership with the North American Association for Environmental Education Affiliate Network. According to a press release, the “Outside for 5” campaign encourages teachers and educators in New Hampshire to incorporate outdoor learning into their students’ routine for at least five minutes a day, five days a week, or any meaningful amount of time as a way to address the decline in youth mental health exacerbated by the pandemic and the resulting impact on classroom educators who have faced increased levels of burnout. “Our goal with this campaign is to inspire educators to think outside the box when it comes to enhancing the social-emotional wellness of their students, each other, and their entire school community,” Sarah Bodor, NAAEE’s Director of Policy and Affiliate Relations, said in the release. “We want kids to get outside and experience the benefits of nature’s classroom.” To sign the pledge and learn more about the “Outside for 5” campaign, visit outsidefor5.com.

Scholarship

The Merrimack County Conservation District is now accepting applications for its “Stanley Grimes Conservation Scholarship.” According to a press release, the $1,000 scholarship will be awarded in June to a Merrimack County resident who has been accepted to a two- or four-year college or university and will be attending full-time in the fall of 2023 with the intent to pursue studies in the field of agriculture, forestry, environmental science, soil science or a related natural resources program. The application deadline is May 5. Visit merrimackccd.org, email info@merrimackccd.org or call 223-6020 to learn more about the scholarship and to access an application form.

Help for homelessness

Harbor Care, a nonprofit organization that provides housing, health care and human services in New Hampshire, was awarded a $2,000 donation by the Rotary Club of Hollis-Brookline on April 5. According to a press release, Harbor Care has been a leading provider of supportive and permanent housing for veterans and individuals experiencing chronic homelessness in Greater Nashua and beyond, successfully moving 246 individuals and families experiencing chronic homelessness into permanent housing since 2020, and helping 343 veterans experiencing or at-risk of homelessness to access stable housing in the past year. The donated funds will be used to support Harbor Care’s Dignity of Home initiative, which aims to provide safe and stable housing to individuals experiencing homelessness and help them overcome the co-occurring challenges they often face, such as mental illness and addiction.

Beech leaf disease

A research team at the University of New Hampshire, led by Jeff Garnas, a UNH scientist researcher with the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station, has received a grant to study the potential impacts of beech leaf disease (BLD), a relatively new disease caused by invasive felted beech scale insects that has been spreading rapidly throughout New England forests. According to a press release, the researchers will collect tree core samples from BLD monitoring sites across nine states in the Northeast to analyze annual beech growth patterns and assess the combined effects of BLD and beech bark disease (BBD), another threat to beech trees in the region. The team will also investigate climate records to determine the role of climate conditions in the spread of the diseases and its impact on tree growth and mortality. “As a new disease in our forests, the long-term impacts of BLD are currently difficult to predict with any certainty … and there is definitely cause for concern.” Garnas said in the release. “Ultimately, this work will provide forest managers and forest health specialists much-needed tools for understanding, assessing and predicting the long-term impacts of BLD.”

Emergency help

The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, in collaboration with the State’s substance misuse prevention partners, has announced a new initiative to distribute more than 700 “NaloxBoxes” in various public locations across all 10 counties in the state. According to a press release, this statewide coordinated effort — the first of its kind in the U.S. — aims to provide 24/7 access to naloxone, a medication that can reverse opioid overdoses and save lives. “During a medical emergency, every minute counts, and providing public access to life-saving medication that can reverse the impact of an overdose while it is occurring is a critical step in reducing the number of lives lost to substance use disorder,” DHHS Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Ballard said in the release. Any business or community entity in New Hampshire is eligible to request a NaloxBox unit for installation in an accessible and highly visible area by contacting State Opioid Response Director Jennifer Sabin at jennifer.a.sabin@dhhs.nh.gov. First responders, families, caregivers and other individuals who would like access to naloxone for individual purposes can reach out to their local Doorway, a resource for substance use disorder services in New Hampshire.

Registration is open for the Laconia Golf Classic, a fundraiser for Concord Hospital’s Laconia Dental Center and its programs set for Monday, May 22, at Laconia Country Club (607 Elm St., Laconia). According to a press release, the day will begin with a welcome barbecue at 11 a.m. and will feature raffles, giveaways and hole-in-one prizes, including a chance to win a car or Kubota tractor. Visit ch-trust.org or call 737-6752 to learn more and to register your team.

The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire in Londonderry (27 Navigator Road) will host an informational open house on Tuesday, April 18, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. for community members interested in volunteering for the museum’s education outreach program. According to a press release, attendees can meet current volunteers and learn about volunteering opportunities to help the museum in its mission to introduce young people to the world of aviation and aerospace. To RSVP, call 669-4877 and leave a message with your name, or send an email to ldearborn@nhahs.org. Visit aviationmuseumofnh.org to learn about other kinds of volunteering opportunities at the museum.

From April 17 through Oct. 28, United Way of Greater Nashua will move its Pop-Up Pantries to a dozen outdoor locations in the downtown Nashua area — two or three locations every weekday — to provide free fresh food to area residents facing food insecurity. Visit tinyurl.com/pop-uppantries for times and locations. Donations of nonperishable food are accepted at United Way of Greater Nashua’s office (20 Broad St., Nashua) weekdays between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., according to a press release.

Big band

Snarky Puppy arrives at Capitol Center

Jazz fusion collective Snarky Puppy is hot on the heels of winning its fifth Grammy, for the double album Empire Central. Bass player and primary composer Michael League spoke with the Hippo by phone from Minnesota, as a tour that stops in Concord on April 12 kicked off. League discussed moving to Catalonia, Spain, in 2020, the nature of his ever-changing band and its influences, and what all that Grammy love really means.

What led the decision to relocate to Spain?

I was looking to focus more on production rather than playing live, and I had gone through a lot of drama with recording studios in New York; there was always an issue in the spaces I was in… I was just like, I want to have my own studio in my own house, where I can bring artists to me, a place that I enjoy living that’s calm and tranquil … half of my family is Greek, so I always felt really at home in the Mediterranean … it’s one of the best decisions I ever made in my life.

Has the evolution of technology helped your creative process?

Everyone’s using technology, my bass plugs into an amp, that’s technology, but I wouldn’t say that we focus on being revolutionary or cutting edge with it. At the risk of sounding like an old kerfuffle, I think that we’re very analog. We’re very about getting in the room together and playing, and seeing what happens from the beginning … playing live is the essence of Snarky Puppy. Our thing is not making slick videos; we play music together, we’re like a family, and the chemistry between the members is what makes the music so special, I think.

What are your influences?

Oh my god, I listen to a lot of music, like everybody in the band does. I mean, I listen to a lot of music from different parts of the world, but I mean Snarky Puppy above all has been greatly influenced by Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters, Steely Dan, yeah sure, Tower of Power, you know and Parliament; Jaco Pastorius. I feel like a lot of the groups that sit in the cracks of genres, they are our biggest influences.

How does Grammy validation matter to you?

What the awards have done is vastly improve our quality of life on the road. We get paid better, treated better, and there’s more respect, which means our touring life is more sustainable. It used to be really rough, very intense and very hard on our bodies and bank accounts… people may not say [it] because we’ve been nominated five times and we’ve won five times, but the nature of Snarky Puppy is being underdogs. We started when we were too jazz for rock and too rock for jazz, and no one would book us. Festivals hated us because we were too electric, and rock clubs didn’t like us because we weren’t rock enough, and we somehow figured out a way to make it work.

What are your thoughts on working with David Crosby, on his passing, and his legacy?

He was one of my closest friends … he was like family. He changed so much about how I think about music, and I’m very grateful to have been able to spend time with him in the last part of his life. He had a reputation for being a difficult person, and I wouldn’t say that’s untrue, but … I will say that I experienced that very little in the years that I knew him. He was nothing but beautiful to me and all of my friends and everyone in my community. Just one the most generous people with his time and his resources…. When people talk about him, they talk about relationships that were destroyed [and] the more outlandish stuff that happened in his life, but if you’re going to talk about that, you have to talk about how he was so full of joy and generosity, and above all, so full of wonder about music. He was like a little kid with music, he always used to say it was the most fun you could have with your clothes on. It was just beautiful. The main thing that I learned from him is that it doesn’t matter how old you are, or famous or rich, just music brings joy. You get rid of all the superficial stuff, and you can reduce it down as much as you like and the core of it is just joy, and he had that at 81 years old. He was still so juiced and excited about playing, recording and creating.

You have many side projects — when you go on stage for this show, are you basically sticking to Snarky Puppy?

What I love about having so many projects is when you enter into one of them, you’re going into an entire world of music, with its own rules and natural laws and all this kind of stuff. It’s beautiful, because it exposes all kinds of parts of your personality. Actually, I don’t even like the thought of playing one of the songs from one band with another band, it doesn’t inspire me at all. I love going out with Snarky Puppy and just being in Snarky Puppy land, and then going out with Bokanté and being in that world. It’s fun, it’s like putting on a new pair of pants.

Snarky Puppy
When: Wednesday, April 12, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Capitol Center for the Arts, 44 S. Main St., Concord
Tickets: $35.25 and up at ccanh.com

Featured photo: Snarky Puppy. Michael League is in the foreground, left. Courtesy photo.

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