[1] The route was built to loosely follow the Underground Railroad, the network of paths that African American slaves used to escape to the Northern United States and Canada.
[2] The route begins on the shores of the Gulf Coast of the United States in Mobile, Alabama, where the last slave ship to bring slaves to the United States docked in 1860.
[3] Cyclists then follow the Drinking Gourd north, with stops to visit historic Underground Railroad sites like museums and safe houses.
The endpoint is Owen Sound, Ontario, "the Underground Railroad's most northerly safe haven.
"[3] The route varies from flat farmlands and rolling hills in Alabama and Mississippi to steep climbs and descents in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana.