Riding the 25 miles around the Blackwater Refuge it's hard not to imagine the struggle and dedication that Harriet Tubman went through during the years of the Underground Railroad. The land is covered in high grass and muck, a proper marsh. Biting flies and mosquitoes cling to your legs and your arms, reminding you who's in charge. Though the landscape is utterly beautiful and timeless from the safety of the non-congested road that forms the loop around the refuge, it is clear that any trek through this marsh would be an uncomfortable and tedious trek to freedom.

As the slave owners chased close behind with muskets and dogs, falling through the high grass, get cut by the blades, bugs clinging to flesh for food, and slipping into mucky pot holes, getting stuck, barks and shots ringing out behind, finally making it to safety, or at least find coving in the patches of trees. The entire time the harsh sun pouring down heat on your worn and beaten skin causing sweat to bead and drip into your eyes.

This place, even if the 25 miles is not something on your list for biking, really is a way to bring the idea of what the Underground Railroad was to life. Even being able to see the birthplace (a simple plot of land now) of the great Ms. Tubman, is a tremendous compliment to what we all learned in elementary school and might have shrugged off.