I guess I needed to clarify. I didn't suggest that fugitive slaves who escaped in eastern Virginia made it their goal to reach and cross the Ohio River.

My theory is and was that slaves being marched to the river by white overseers to be "sold down the river" to slave markets in the Deep South were a likely source of those who were helped at Underground Railroad stations throughout West Virginia. Many inns along the turnpikes were entrance portals to the Underground Railroad. When the overseers slept at night, there were opportunities for slaves to escape, either on their own or with assistance from someone at the inn.

I have found references to the overland route in books on the domestic slave trade. And there is evidence in West Virginia history books about the early turnpike routes being used as part of the domestic slave trade. Wheeling, on the National Road, was a major center of the domestic slave trade.

Other towns and cities along the Ohio River in West Virginia (part of Virginia until the Civil War) also had auction blocks that functioned as part of the domestic slave trade. Ocean going slave ships were even built on the Ohio River, before the US stopped the importation of slaves.

In the early 1800's the Ohio River was America's superhighway for trade of all kinds. Unfortunately that included human beings.