Backroads of Ontario

Backroads of Ontario gives travelers the information and maps they need to explore Ontario in a new and creative way. It invites them to exit the noisy busy highways and take a trip through Ontario's countryside and its history: silent ghost towns, charming villages, century-old mills and farmhouses, dramatic cliffs, prime picnic spots, architectural curiosities, an amethyst mine, an underwater graveyard of shipwrecks and so much more.

This guidebook has been used by thousands of travelers as they have discovered some of the province's most unexpected places. In this third edition, new information updates the old, including new attractions and the most current routes and directions.

There are 24 trips, each illustrated with photographs and accompanied by an easy-to-follow map. Trips range in length from afternoon outings to weekend excursions and all lead to out-of-the-way places within easy driving distance of Ontario's major cities.

Along with the Lake Simcoe Steeple Chase, there is a tour of Ontario's prettiest, most historic and most unusual country churches, and a lock-by-lock tour of the Welland Canal, an engineering marvel lauded around the world. Here are some of the sites on these tours:

• An 1811 Quaker Meeting House, one of the oldest buildings on Toronto's Yonge Street
• Lagoon City, a community on Lake Simcoe built entirely upon a system of canals and known as "Ontario's Venice"
• A historically important First Nations site of significance later known as the Toronto Carrying Place Trail
• Oro African Church, the 1845 church built by black settlers, descendents of militiamen who served Britain in the 1812 war, likely the oldest surviving log African church in North America.

Ron Brown has written a dozen books on Ontario's ghost towns and roadside attractions. He is a frequent contributor to CBC Radio, and his travel articles appear regularly in North American newspapers and magazines. He lives in Toronto.