Big River
Big River is a large tract (8600 acres) of land governed by Water Resources Board and located mainly in West Greenwich near exit 6, 6a & 7 along interstate 95 (south side of the highway from Amgen). It was aquired to build a reservoir many years ago but the project was never really started. Currently the north side (not shown in the maps below) is being considered for a well field to add to the local water system. The south side of BR and Carr Pond area hold a laborinth of trails mostly made over decades by the motorcycles and interwoven with old farmer and logging roads.
Around every Earth Day over the past several years (a weekend in April) a sizable group of NEMBAites and other environmental minded groups get together to help clean some of the rubbish out of Big River. 2008 turned out 100 volunteers filling 8 dumpsters with mostly historic trash from old homesteads deep in the woods, abondoned cars and tire dumps.
While riding in Big River is still technically limited only to the fire roads by the use rules, it is more of a don’t ask don’t tell approach until those rules are hopefully reconcidered for numerous responsible user groups. We are taking a proactive approach working with the WRB on projects like the cleanup. Hopefully someday soon Big River will become a viable alternative for the mountain bike community. Until then we’ll help out where we can and work closely with the WRB.
Here’s a map of the whole the combined Big River including Carr Pond, click on it to enlarge and zoom in
Here’s a detail of the Big River side (west)
and here’s a detail of the Carr Pond Side (east)
the vice president for Big River for RI Nemba is Peter Gengler
(gengler.peter@gmail.com)