Native Americans in birch bark canoes paddled the river trade routes with names like Nissitissit, Naticook, and Contoocook of New Hampshire’s Merrimack Valley long before the Mayflower’s settlers waded ashore in 1620. The European settlers followed these established transportation corridors, horses and wagons and roadways soon followed, and before long ferries and covered bridges linked the villages and mill towns that sprang up where waterfalls provided power, and where farmers plowed the fertile soil of the flood plains.

They chartered a Town Meeting form of government, electing a Board of Selectmen who conducted the daily business of their town during the year. At the yearly town meeting all registered voters could voice their opinions on the issues at hand and then vote directly on those particular issues. This form of pure democracy continues today.

The state’s constitution, written in 1784, is five years older than the United States Constitution, and the legislature, at 400 members the country’s largest, still meets in the original chambers of Concord’s State House, the oldest state capitol.

But, it is not just history that lures visitors to this green, vibrant, and scenic state. There are mountains to climb and trails to hike, lakes to paddle and photos to take, country stores and farm stands to browse, and fall colors to dazzle your eyes. You will also find a friendly but independent bunch of inhabitants, as evidenced by the adoption of General John Stark’s Revolutionary War cry, "Live free or die," as the state motto.

What better way to get an overview of this seventh smallest state than to look out across her forests, hills, valleys, and rivers from the top of 3,165-foot Monadnock Mountain, the most prominent feature in southern New Hampshire and the second most climbed mountain in the world (after Mount Fuji in Japan).

We attacked the mountain inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote, "When you have worn out your shoes the strength of the shoe leather has passed into the fabric of your body. I measure your health by the number of shoes and hats and clothes you have worn out. He is the richest man who pays the largest debt to the shoemaker," and also by the Woodshed Gang, a group of "mature" hikers, some in their 70s and 80s, who climb the mountain every Saturday morning year round.

A little over an hour later we reached the naked granite top offering an unrestricted view in all directions. A chilly wind blew fog and clouds around in swirls, obscuring the view, which on a clear day encompasses all six New England states. It was still an impressive sight.

We decided to celebrate our successful ascent at Kimball Farm, in nearby Jaffrey, with an ice cream acclaimed by New Englanders (self-proclaimed ice cream experts) to be even better than from those two guys in Vermont. Seniors in their Sunday best queued up with sweaty disheveled hikers, parched and famished from climbing Mt. Monadnock, at the seven windows that serve only ice cream. The outdoor tables as well as the parking lot was jammed, and children chased around the grounds, cones dripping down their chins and arms.

Silver Ranch Airpark, just down the road, offers antique plane rides for a scenic bird’s eye view of the mountain. The airport is the site of New England’s largest fireworks show, the Festival of Fireworks in its 11^th season, on August 19th. Over 25,000 attended last year. Proceeds from the show are returned to the community of Jaffrey for various civic projects. You can dry camp on the grounds but reservations are required and must be made early.

Monadnock State Park Campground’s central location encourages a loop tour of the area. From Jaffrey, turn south to the Cathedral of the Pines in Rindge, an outdoor shrine under towering pine trees with an unobstructed view of Monadnock Mountain in the distance.

Head west on SR 119 through picturesque Fitzwilliam to Keene. With a wealth of historical buildings, and the campus of Keene State College, the old mixes with the whimsy of a college town, with eclectic shops hung with local artwork, used bookstores and coffeehouses with comfy overstuffed chairs, and scores of bicycles. With no state sales tax you can shop till you drop at one of the 30 specialty shops at the Colony Mill Marketplace at Main and West Streets.

Yet it is still typical New England--the central Green with its hero statue, town hall, and white-steepled church. We could envision the characters and events of the revolutionary era as we wandered these historic streets. At the Wyman Tavern a sign informed us that, "Thirty men set free from this house at sunrise April 21,1775 for Lexington to fight for our independence."

Visit the Historical Society at 246 Main St. to see their famous collection of late 1700s bottles made here in Keene and their impressive collection of Hampshire pottery from the 1850's. You can research your own family history free in their genealogy library, which has town records for most of early New England.

We took the long way back to camp and followed one of the map’s light gray lines due east to investigate the photogenic mill town of Harrisville, a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The next morning we packed up and headed north to Yankee Magazine Travel Guide’s Editor’s Pick for 1999, Pillsbury State Park. In the early 1900s ecologists became concerned about clear-cutting and polluted streams and ponds where heavy logging, beginning in the 1780s, had decimated the forests. In a gesture of uncommon environmental awareness, the current mill owner deeded the property to the public "…as a public forest reservation…" which eventually became the State Park.

The mill owner, Albert Pillsbury, became one of the original seven founders of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (SPNHF), a non-profit conservation organization whose committed members and donors have been instrumental in saving nearly a million acres of forests and lands from destructive logging and development. Many of these places that today we take for granted and identify as New Hampshire’s legacy—the White Mountains, Mt. Monadnock, Franconia and Crawford Notches, Mount Sunapee, to name a few—are protected by public trusts today because of the Society.

Though Pillsbury’s virgin trees are gone, the forest has reclaimed the park’s 5,000 acres and now more than 20 miles of hiking trails lace through the thick pines and hardwoods, the polluted ponds have recovered and welcome the ducks that now come to nest, mountain trout wait in the shade to take your hook, and you can again hear the mournful cry of the loon at dusk. Slide your canoe onto the mirror-smooth water from one of May Pond’s twenty primitive campsites along its shoreline and paddle through the ephemeral early morning fog that clings like wisps of cotton to the surface.

At Pillsbury we were a little more than an hour’s drive to the White Mountains on I-93 (it’s only 290 miles from stem to stern in this small state, and just over 90 miles wide at it’s widest point). We left early the next morning on a gorgeous sunny and warm day, surrounded by green mountains and rushing rivers. After pancakes with real maple syrup at North Woodstock, a loop tour of about 100 miles would provide a scenic overview of the White Mountains. The foliage show produced repeated encores of flaming oranges, blazing reds, mahogany browns, and lustrous yellows of the maples, basswoods, oaks, ashes, sumacs, beeches, and birches.

We joined the throngs at Franconia Notch to walk down the short trail for a look at the Old Man of the Mountain, an imposing cliff face in the profile of a man, and New Hampshire's signature.

Near Bethlehem, at the intersection of I-93 and SR-302, The Rocks, one of the SPNHF properties and formerly the country estate and farm of the president of International Harvester, now operates as an educational facility and balsam fir Christmas tree farm selling over 2000 trees a year. More than 12,000 children a year come to learn about conservation, forest and wildlife management. The farm is open to the public to enjoy the serenity of this hilltop farm and wander the trails the grounds.

Turn east on SR-302 to one of the country’s last remaining grand dame resort hotels, the Mount Washington Hotel & Resort. Looking like a scene from an Austrian Alps travelogue, it deserves a stop and a few minutes to stroll around her spacious grounds, lavish halls, and majestic rooms.

Continue through Crawford Notch to the hamlet of Bartlett and turn right on Bear Notch Road over Bear Mountain to the Kancamagus National Scenic Byway. More spectacular overlooks, eye stopping foliage, and an occasional river or pond add visual variety. Finally the road descends from Kancamagus Pass back to North Woodstock completing the loop.

The Merrimack Valley

We followed the five-mile long entrance road winding through Bear Brook SP between Concord and Manchester near Allenstown to the campground’s spacious woodsy sites (no hook-ups but there is a dump station, water, laundromat, and coin showers). A trail circles Beaver Pond with several side spurs spoking off connecting with other trails, and a boardwalk to keep you dry over the marsh.

After breakfast we drove up to Shaker Village in Canterbury, an immaculately restored village on 694 rolling acres of gardens, nature trails, woods, ponds, and meadows with tours, festivals, demonstrations, and classes teaching the Shaker ways. Displays of their practical furniture and household items give a feel for the Shakers’ austere lifestyle. The community held property in common, practiced asceticism, and honored celibacy above marriage. The movement diminished after 1860 (I wonder why), and in the 1980s only a few members remained. The Creamery Restaurant features regional New England cooking and serves both sit down and picnic deli foods. A large area for busses behind the horse barn provides adequate parking for large rigs.

South of Manchester, in North Salem, lies an archeological wonder, America’s Stonehenge, a giant megalithic astronomical complex. The network of stone walls and huge standing stones covers more than 30 acres and even today this accurate, astrologically aligned calendar can be used to predict specific solar and lunar events.

Uncovered artifacts, radiocarbon dating, and stone carvings prove man’s presence dating back 4000 years. No one knows for sure who built these chambers, how they placed capstones weighing as much as eleven tons, and how they placed the stones that can so accurately predict celestial events. Just the ticket for lovers of the mysterious and inexplicable.

Colonial Portsmouth, along New Hampshire’s minuscule thirteen-mile long seacoast, has the look and feel of an authentic 18^th century seaport. Brick buildings line the harbor, restaurants and shops crowd the narrow old town streets, and horses hooves clippity clop over the stone streets. Though the horses and wagons today draw only tourists, and espresso houses have replaced English teahouses and pubs, it does not diminish the character of this old harbor.

After wandering the historical streets, poking our noses into the myriad shops, we had a bowl of steaming New England clam chowder at the Stockpot, sitting in the sun on their deck and watching the harbor hum with activity.

Who knows, maybe statesman and orator Daniel Webster sat at this very same spot when he had his law practice here in Portsmouth, also watching the busy harbor and contemplating the future of this fledgling state. He would be proud at how it all turned out.

As we all learned in high school biology, sunlight causes photosynthesis, which is the life force in plants. This process scrubs the carbon-dioxide, which animals and humans exhale, from the air and combines it with water and chlorophyll in the plant to create carbohydrates.

Technical stuff. What really happens is that the pigment in chlorophyll absorbs reds, oranges, yellows, and blues and reflects greens. That is what makes the leaves look green, real green, so green that it covers up and hides all the lesser colors. These colors are already in the leaves of the hardwoods, even in summer before they display their fall shades, you just can’t see them.

As summer passes, the days grow shorter, the weather gets cooler, and the chlorophyll starts to break down, losing its moisture and nutrients—and its green color. The other colors emerge as the green fades.

These trees are temperamental, also. They won’t perform with as much gusto unless they get warm dry days and cool but not freezing nights. If fall is warm and rainy the trees produce less showy colors.

Predicting when the colors will peak is kind of like predicting what a moose will do when you come upon one standing in the middle of the road. However, people who study these things say that on the south side of Mt. Washington the birch, maple and ash, will start peaking in mid-September, as will the swamp maples in low wet locations. But generally, peaking begins in the northern part of the state toward the end of September and into the beginning of October. In the rest of the White Mountain region you can count on early October peak times. In the Merrimack, Monadnock, and Southeast regions look for peaking in the second and third weeks of October.

You may wonder why you need a tip to look at trees, but these tips are not for the looking, but for your safety. No, the trees are not going to attack you, but when leef peepers get really going, these are some of the things you need to be on the alert for:

• The vehicle ahead of you slamming on the brakes in the middle of the road as it rounds a corner and sees a spectacular fall color display.
• Drivers looking out the windows of their vehicles while drifting across the center line into your lane.
• Vehicles parked in the middle of your lane, Patayan and Mojave especially just around a blind curve.
• Leaf Peepers with cameras.

For up-to-the-minute accuracy on the best places to see the most colorful displays, call the toll-free fall foliage hotline (begins mid-September) 1(800) 258-3608 or 1 (800) 262-6660.

For a NH Vacation kit:

NH Office of Travel and Tourism

Box 1856

Concord, NH 03302-1856

Phone: (800) FUN-IN-NH

E-Mail: ottd@dred.state.nh.us

For information on NH State Parks:

NH Division of Parks and Recreation

PO Box 1856

Concord, NH 03303-1856

E-Mail: info@nhparks.state.nh.us

For a map and guide on how to find the 101 SPNHF forest reservations:

Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests

54 Portsmouth Street

Concord, NH 03301

Phone: (603) 224-9945

Canterbury Shaker Village

Canterbury, NH 03224

Phone: (603) 783-9511

Web site: www.shakers.org

Directions: Take exit 18 from I-93, and follow the signs.

America’s Stonehenge

PO Box 84

N. Salem, NH 03073

Phone: (603) 893-8300

From exit 3 off I93 turn east on route 111 for 5 miles. Turn south on Island Pond, then Haverhill Roads, and follow signs.