Big River 1

Posted By on April 22, 2013

Big River 1

4 miles   2.5 mph

i have labelled this hike with the number 1 because i really would like to go back and do some more exploring. i started off trying to follow the ken weber hike from more walks and rambles in rhode island, 1992 edition, #36, and promptly got off track. in fact, i never actually got on track until about halfway through. it was in part what i expected, and in part not what i expected. the main roads/trails were heavily used and had a lot of bunny humps, but there were some beautiful side trails that were perfectly acceptable footpaths and made for some very nice hiking. and i thought it might be, i don’t know, trashier? maybe? than it was. worth a return!

turtle sign

turtle sign

this was right at the beginning of the first trail i was on. this particular trail was unfortunately devoid of baby turtles, but it was a very nice footpath.

tangled pine woods

tangled pine woods

this stretch of trail was fairly typical of the whole area… dense young pine woods. the land of the big river wildlife management area was acquired by the state of rhode island in the mid-60s and was originally intended to be flooded and used as a reservoir, but the reservoir never happened due to environmental objections. i found a fascinating article about the rare and endangered plant life in big river on the “among rhode island wildflowers” website. as if i didn’t have enough reason to go back and explore!

old cemetery

old cemetery

obviously this was once settled land, and as is typical for new england, criss-crossed by stone walls and positively riddled with old cellarholes and cemeteries. the date on this particularly poignant stone, if you can’t read it, is 1775. somebody once took the time to place silk flowers, too.

aside from the rainbow-spaghetti trail map posted by the rhode island chapter of the new england mountain biking association, there are no decent on-line hiking maps of big river, although the great swamp press has published an excellent paper map. i put this hike in the hikefinder, and i am still working on the map, and plan on adding to it as i explore more, so stay tuned.

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