The Underground Railroad Bicycle Route (UGRR) honors the bravery of those who fled bondage and those who provided shelter. This route passes points of interest and historic sites along a 2,008-mile corridor. Beginning in Mobile, Alabama - a busy port for slavery during the pre-civil war era - the route goes north following rivers through Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Waterways, as well as the North Star, were often used by freedom seekers as a guide in their journeys to escape slavery. Upon crossing into Ohio, the route leaves the river to head toward Lake Erie and enters Canada at the Peace Bridge near Buffalo, New York. In Ontario, the route follows the shores of Lake Ontario and ends at Owen Sound, a town founded by freedom seekers in 1857. Owen Sound is located on the southern side of Lake Huron's Georgian Bay.
The Kentucky part of the Underground Railroad Bike Tour begins on The Trace Road running north through the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. Making it's way up to and snaking along the Ohio River. Passing through Grand Rivers, Smithland, Carrsville, Sturgis, Morganfield, Smith Mills, Henderson, Reed, Owensboro, Lewisport, Hawesville, Coverport, Stephensport, Mooleyville, Battletown before crossing into Indiana in Brandenburg.
The Underground Railroad Bike Tour after going through Indiana reemerges into Kentucky at Milton passing through Northern Kentucky leaving Kentucky in Maysville to continue on through Ohio. While biking through northern Kentucky you pass through Carrollton, Sanders, Sparta, Glencoe, Dry Ridge, Falmouth, and Germantown.
Along Kentucky's parts of the route you will pass by many historical areas closely associated with the Underground Railroad. In Maysville there is the National Underground Railroad Museum where you will be able to view a documented "safe house." You will be biking within several miles of Agusta which contains many important sites to the Underground Railroad. You will also pass by the Free Land: The Story of Juliet Miles site.