BITTINGER, Md. -- It's not much of a road -- but what a road it was.

On July 3, 1754, in a wilderness meadow of the Allegheny Mountains some 10 miles east of what is now Uniontown, Colonial troops commanded by 22-year-old Col. George Washington were in a small stockade they had built, when they were surrounded by a force of about 600 French soldiers and 100 Indians. The French took up positions in the woods, and Washington withdrew his men to the entrenchments. Rain fell throughout the day, flooding the marshy ground. Both sides suffered casualties, but in the end British losses were greater.

This opening battle of the French and Indian War began a seven-year struggle between Great Britain and France for control of North America. Great Britain's success in this war helped pave the way for the American Revolution.

The following spring, British and Colonial American troops began hacking their way through 122 miles of Maryland and Pennsylvania wilderness to try and reach Fort Duquesne at the forks of the Ohio at what is now Pittsburgh.

Today, the route they carved out is barely recognizable. Even a well-preserved section atop Big Savage Mountain is overgrown and eroded, its wide, rugged path winding across steep Appalachian ridges through stands of maple and oak.

But Braddock's Road is being walked again this summer as historians mark the 250th anniversary of the War For Empire. George Washington and Daniel Boone were among the nearly 2,400 men, led by British Gen. Edward Braddock, who spent two months toiling along an Indian trail from Cumberland toward Fort Duquesne, aiming to seize the fortress from the French.

Subsisting on wild game and rattlesnake meat, they widened the path to 12 feet to accommodate 200 horse-drawn wagons hauling cannons that had been shipped from England to Virginia, and then pulled along roads to Fort Cumberland.

They left Cumberland on May 1, 1755, averaging just two miles a day.

At one point, Washington complained in a letter to his brother, "they were halting to level every molehill, and to erect bridges over every brook, by which means we were four days in getting 12 miles."

The expedition ended July 9, 1755, on the banks of the Monongahela at what is now Braddock seven miles short of Fort Duquesne, when the party was ambushed and defeated by about 1,200 French soldiers and Indians. Braddock was mortally wounded. When he died four days later, his remains were buried in the middle of the road about 10 miles east of Uniontown. His grave is now part of the Fort Necessity National Battlefield.

Although his troops were vanquished, the rough road they hacked out of the wilderness eventually became the main route west for settlers crossing the Eastern Continental Divide to reach the Ohio Valley. It was used for nearly 60 years before the National Pike, precursor to U.S. 40, was built to replace it.

Today, those who hike the publicly accessible 2 1/2 miles of Braddock's Road in Maryland's Savage River State Forest can thank amateur archaeologist Robert L. Bantz, a retired mechanical engineer from the Cumberland area who has spent the last 10 years charting the route.

Guided by a 1914 article by Harvard University professor John Kennedy Lacock, and using old maps, journals and GPS technology, Bantz, 69, has painstakingly plotted most of the 36 1/2 miles of Braddock's Road in western Maryland. He said there are 18 miles of undisturbed road in Maryland, almost all on private land, while just a few traces exist in Pennsylvania.

"My job is to try to preserve it so that you and your grandchildren can walk it," he told dozens of Garrett County elementary students at a living history event last month.

Bantz later guided a visitor down a steep section of Braddock's Road just south of exit 29 on Interstate 68, to a spot where three wagons were reportedly destroyed and several more were damaged. He paused at the bottom of the hill to let the ghosts pass.

"If you come right here and you sit down on a stump, you can hear the cussing and smell the horses sweating," he said.

Bantz was delighted to see signs, recently erected by Maryland's Department of Natural Resources, directing people to the old road.

Savage River State Forest Manager Mike Gregory said the state considers Braddock's Road a precious asset.

"We don't want to go ahead and advertise every section of the trail. We want to take it in bits and pieces so we can be sure to protect the trail from any impacts," he said.

Visitors have included Andrew Wahll, a retired National Geographic research cartographer who compiled a book of historical journals, "Braddock Road Chronicles, 1755" (Heritage Books, 1999) without ever having seen the trail. He called Bantz a few years later to request a tour.

"He's made a solid contribution," Wahll said in a telephone interview from his home near Knoxville, Tenn.

Historian Robert Adamovich of Hopwood, Fayette County, said Bantz had done more than anyone to save Braddock's Road.

"What he's done is an absolute national treasure," he said.

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If you go: Braddock's Road

Braddock's Road:

The 21/2-mile portion of Braddock's Road is marked and publicly accessible in the Savage River State Forest, just south of exit 29 of Interstate 68.

Braddock's Road Preservation Association: http://jumonville.gospelcom.net/brpa or 724-439-4912.

Robert Bantz's Web site (which includes a map): www.geocities.com/wmdasm/braddock.html. History of Braddock's Road and U.S. 40: www.route40.net/history/braddock.shtml.

Anniversary encampment:

To mark the 250th anniversary of Braddock's retreat to Dunbar Camp, a model British encampment will be staged July 16, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at Jumonville Camp and Retreat Center, 887 Jumonville Road, Hopwood.

At 7 p.m., lectures on the Braddock expedition will be held in Wesley Hall. A memorial service takes place the morning of July 17 at the Braddock Grave site at Fort Necessity National Battlefield.

Fort Necessity National Battlefield:

The battlefield is located on U.S. Highway 40, about 11 miles east of Uniontown and 90 minutes from Pittsburgh. A new Interpretive and Education Center is nearly completed. In addition to being the only center in the NPS dedicated to telling the story of the French and Indian War, it will also convey the building of the National Road and its importance to the development of our nation. For information: www.nps.gov/fone or 724-329-5512.