Biking the Drinking Gourd

Do you love "Follow the Drinking Gourd"? Turns out a group called Adventure Cycling Association has developed a route to cycle the Underground Railroad from Mississippi to Canada. From their website:

Historians, preservationists, and researchers were contacted and asked the question, “How do you pick a route that represents thousands?” During this period of slavery, the tribal custom of creating songs to transmit information from plantation to plantation was used. Adventure Cycling chose to map a route guided by the song, “Follow the Drinking Gourd.”  This song refers to following the North Star and the waterways—in essence, an escape route from Alabama and Mississippi—to the Ohio River. Upon reaching the Ohio River, Adventure Cycling relied on the knowledge and efforts of members and outside experts to steer the route to rich historic destination points while maintaining Adventure Cycling’s standards of great cycling roads and paths.

Field trip?