The American Discovery Trail is a project administered by the American Discovery Trail society to develop the nation's first coast-to-coast, multi-use hiking trail by linking local, regional, and national trails into a route that connects large cities, small towns, urban areas, mountains, forests, deserts, and natural areas. Although it has been mapped across America, it is still being developed and is in the process of being authorized as part of the National Trails System. The route begins or ends at Point Reyes National Seashore in California on the Pacific Ocean, crosses California, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado, splits at Denver into northern and southern Midwest routes, rejoins just west of Cincinnati, and continues through Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Washington, DC, and Delaware to Cape Henlopen State Park on the Atlantic Ocean. Developed principally as a hiking trail, most of it can also be traveled by fat-tired bicycle or on horseback, though some sections require alternate routes. Approximately 262 miles cross West Virginia, including sixty-five miles through Grant, Mineral, and Hampshire Counties in the Potomac Headwaters Region, with another fifty plus miles along the C&O Canal Towpath in Maryland; after connecting with the Appalachian Trail at Harpers Ferry National Historic Park, the route leaves West Virginia's sphere of influence until reaching Green spring in Hampshire County via the C&O Canal Towpath. Nearby, Fort Ashby preserves the remaining barracks of a fort from a chain of sixty-nine forts that Colonel George Washington directed to be built in 1775(sic) so western Virginia settlers could seek safety during the French and Indian War, and the Appalachian Forest Heritage Area is a regional grassroots effort using forest history, culture, natural history, products, and forestry management to build a sustainable heritage tourism network for rural community development.