N estled between the fun loving Muskokas in the south and the remote wilderness of the north, the Almaguin Highlands have long remained a mystery to the rest of Ontario. What many people are not aware of however, is that the Highlands are overflowing with natural wonders and historical lore from which a legacy of Forgotten Trails has emerged. S ignposts with the Forgotten Trails logo are a familiar sight throughout the district and direct visitors to a system of all season trails that are used for hiking and cycling in the summer months. Trails, which include the Old Nipissing Road, Old Muskoka road and Old Rye road, signify a group of long forgotten colonization roads that brought the first settlers to their promised tracts of free land in the north. These trails are brushed and marked each spring and the Forgotten Trails brochure which includes a detailed map of the trail system and interesting information about the trails is available at local businesses and at the Visitor Information Centres.
Trails are a network of trails which trace the footsteps of the first inhabitants of the area.
This includes the paths of the Huron, Ojibway and Algonquin aboriginal tribes who shared the Highlands for hunting game. In fact, for many years during the early 1800's while the lands around the Almaguin region were being settled, the aboriginals managed to keep explorers out of the Highlands by purposely leading them away from the region and their precious hunting grounds. It was not long however, before the early explorers discovered the natural beauty of the Highlands and the aboriginals paths in the area ceased to exist. A fter the discovery of the Highlands by surveyors, logging companies began to move into harvest Almaguin's timber stands. When logging was established in the area, the government began to promote the settlement of the region in the mid 1880's by upgrading logging roads and constructing the Nipissing-Rosseau and Muskoka colonization roads.