Mt. Washington Valley is an area layered with opportunity.

You can find careers in outdoor recreation, to tech and engineering jobs; or professions in the restaurant industry or agricultural landscape.

Within each of those fields, many young professionals are building lives that allow them to balance the live, work, play lifestyle that the Mt. Washington Valley promises.

Tucker Gordon, an Environmental Specialist at HEB Engineers, Inc., is one of them.

Tucker grew up making weekend trips to Mt. Washington Valley - specifically Fryeburg, Maine, his dad’s hometown. (Here’s an itinerary on how to spend your day there!) Their home away from home became Pleasant Mountain, where Tucker would spend weekends skiing with his family. After graduating college, Tucker found himself back in the Mt. Washington Valley, working full-time on Weston’s Farm and Market, which is owned by his great-aunt and uncle. . He soon transitioned to managing the farm and bartending at Thompson House Eatery - a local restaurant with an on-property farm in Jackson, NH. (Bartending at Thompson House Eatery was coincidentally, how Tucker met his wife, Maika - a schoolteacher at Conway Elementary!)

Environmental Science, natural resource management, and agriculture are all passions of Tucker’s. Landing at a company like HEB was a perfect fit. Many of the employees at HEB grew up in the Mt. Washington Valley, and have the community’s best interests at the helm their work. The company has allowed Tucker to balance a professional career at an award-winning engineering firm, with the excellent quality of life that the Mt. Washington Valley offers. The company is employee owned and Tucker particularly appreciates the young and outdoorsy employees he gets to work with, as well as the professional growth opportunities HEB provides.
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Tucker is always championing the valley as a great place to move to all of his friends, and other young professionals, from away. And if they can’t make the leap to live in the Mt. Washington Valley full-time, he at least knows how to make them fall in love with the area during a weekend getaway.

• The first place Tucker takes his friends when they visit is Frontside Coffee Roasters. A coffee shop in North Conway, NH that sees a lot of local traffic.
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• The coffee poured at Frontside Coffee Roasters is roasted right next door in an industrial space attached to Poppy and Vale - a gift, clothing and home decor shop in North Conway, NH. Part of a trifecta of businesses, Frontside Coffee Roasters, Poppy and Vale, and Designed Gardens Flower Studio are all connected by young entrepreneurs with family ties. Each shop makes  for a great stop for Tucker, Maika, and their friends.
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• After coffee and a breakfast sandwich, Tucker is taking everyone to either Cranmore Mountain Resort, or going backcountry skiing at Maple Villa Glade - which is a backcountry ski glade maintained by local non-profit Granite Backcountry.
  
  Granite Backcountry has worked with private landowners and land trusts to provide access to glades throughout Maine and New Hampshire. Maple Villa is a 48-acre parcel of land owned by Upper Saco Valley Land Trust. Granite Backcountry describes Maple Villa as “A zone spread into three sections. The east zone runs approximately 800 vertical feet each (or 1,700 feet down to the parking lot), the west zone for solitude, or the Pine Hill area for steep powder stashes on dawn patrol missions. Or, simply have a mellow ski down Maple Villa.”
  
  Parking is available at 70 East Branch Road, Intervale, NH. If parking is full, take that as sign to move along to a different glade, where parking is available. You can find plenty, here.
  

• Of course, the best beer is the one had right after skiing, and thankfully Ledge Brewing Company is only a two minute drive from Maple Villa Glade’s parking lot, (and a ten minute drive from Cranmore Mountain Resort). Ledge Brewing Company is super passionate about the beer its pouring, and the ingredients that go into it. Known for incredibly charismatic brewers and bartenders, Tucker enjoys a solid IPA there, and listens to live music.
  
  Ledge Brewing Company is also the headquarters for many events, including Tin Mountain Conservation Center’s Adventure Fest; Mount Washington Backcountry Ski Festival; International Mountain Climbing School’s Mount Washington Valley Ice Fest, and more!
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• Tucker will also tout the Maple Lemonade at Flatbread Company - a restaurant that serves wood-fired pizza and salads with as much local ingredients as it can. It works with well-over ten different farms throughout the region, and sources its maple syrup that sweetens each glass of freshly squeezed lemonade as locally as it can. As soon as Tucker sits down at the bar, they’re squeezing him a glass. He’s not the only local that loves this drink, mention it to anyone in town, and their eyes will light up at just how good it is. (While the adult version is normally made with Blueberry vodka, Tucker's insider tip would be to try it with Bourbon instead.)
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• With his background in farming, Tucker also loves to frequent Thompson House Eatery. Not only is it a phenomenal dining experience with a menu that changes weekly based on produce available at the farm, it also holds special meaning because he met his wife there while bartending in the early years of living in Mt. Washington Valley full-time.
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As an employee of HEB Engineers, Inc., Tucker is on a slew of company sponsored teams that allow its employees to take full advantage of the lifestyle Mt. Washington Valley provides, including a Cranmore Mountain Resort Meister Ski Team, a team for the 24-Hours of Great Glen Trails mountain biking event, and a kickball team hosted by the Conway Rec Deparment.

A piece of advice Tucker will give anyone looking to move to North Conway, NH and its surrounding areas is to join any one of those teams. People can come on as individuals and be randomly assigned to a locally sponsored team. They’re a great way to meet locals, and the apres scene hosted by each event are always local hot-spots.

Tucker’s work also allows him to be heavily involved with the non-profits Eastern Slope Ski Club, (ESSC), and Upper Saco Valley Land Trust, (USVLT).  

ESSC provides after-school skiing programs to over 1,500 elementary school children across multiple schools in Mt. Washington Valley. HEB Engineers is not only a sponsor of this non-profit, but allows its employees to take time to volunteer as instructors for the program. You’ll find Tucker out on the slopes with this program teaching kids how to ski who may not have had the opportunity otherwise to learn.

Get to know our locals, attend their favorite events, grab a drink at their favorite bar, support their favorite local shop, and donate to the non-profits they support. The more you do that, the more local you’ll become!

For complete trip planning resources and information, explore this site, visitmwv.com, or call 800-367-3364 (800-DO-SEE-NH) to talk to a Mt Washington Valley Chamber of Commerce rep.  To learn more about New Hampshire vacations, go to www.VisitNH.gov.