This trip takes you along an old road, the Sunnidale Road, dating from the 1830s. You will touch upon an earlier portage route, the Nine-Mile Portage, and, if you would like, you can visit a re-creation of an old fort, Fort Willow, from the days when Barrie was merely a naval storage depot.

Description of Barrie

Start the trip at the Nine-Mile Portage historical marker in Memorial Square at the foot of Bayfield Street in Barrie. In the days when the Nine-Mile Portage was in use, this marker would have stood on the shoreline. Because of the one-way street system in downtown Barrie, you cannot follow the approximate route of the Nine-Mile Portage from Memorial Square but the marker is interesting and you will reach the route very soon.

Drive around the Square to Dunlop Street, named for William "Tiger" Dunlop, who was here in 1814 to build the Penetanguishene Road. Because of the one-way street system, you must turn right onto Dunlop Street. At the traffic lights at Mulcaster Street, turn left. Then, at the next lights, turn left again onto Collier Street. At the end of Collier Street, turn right onto Bayfield Street, then immediately turn left again onto Ross Street. You are now on the old Sunnidale Road and the Nine-Mile Portage, which, at this point, followed the same route.

At the junction of Ross Street and Wellington Street, the old and the present Sunnidale Roads diverge. The old road (and the portage) continued directly across the intersection, through what are now houses, across a park, to the continuation of Letitia Street. The present road bears slightly right, Ross Street becomes Sunnidale Road, and the road generally sweeps further north than the original road.

Drive across the intersection and go north on Sunnidale Road. After you pass over Highway 400, turn left at the stop sign at Letitia Street. Drive west until you cross the traffic lights at Anne Street. You are back on the original Sunnidale Road and Nine-Mile Portage.

Continue until you reach Leacock Drive. The old road would have crossed what is now Leacock Drive, gone through Lampman Park, crossed Sandy Hollow (an undeveloped area beyond Lampman Park), and rejoined the present Sunnidale Road near Barrie Hill Road. The Nine-Mile Portage would have gone the same way as far as Sandy Hollow, where it would have diverged to take a more northerly route toward Willow Creek.

Turn right onto Leacock Drive and drive north. At the T-junction, turn left onto Livingston Street. At the traffic lights at Ferndale Drive, turn right. At Sunnidale Road, turn left. Drive west. Just before Dobson Road, the Nine-Mile Portage would have crossed the road, heading toward Willow Creek. Somewhere between Dobson Road and Barrie Hill Road, the old Sunnidale Road would have rejoined the present road. At any rate, after Barrie Hill Road, you are again on the old Sunnidale Road.

When you reach the George Johnson Road, you have a choice. You can visit the Fort Willow Conservation Area or you can just continue. Fort Willow is on the site where the Nine-Mile Portage ended at Willow Creek. It has a reproduction of the old fort built when the Nine-Mile Portage was the most-used way to get to the Upper Great Lakes. It also contains a stretch of forest to reproduce the environment of the portage at that time. If you decide to visit Fort Willow, which is certainly worth a visit, you will drive down an unpaved road. Depending on the time of year, you may find that the flies and other insects reproduce the environment of the Nine-Mile Portage too authentically. For more information on Fort Willow, see http://www.nvca.on.ca/ca/fort_willow/

To visit Fort Willow, turn right on the George Johnson Road. After you cross the railway tracks, turn left onto Portage Trail. This road is unpaved. Drive down the trail until it turns left; the conservation area is on the right just a little further down the trail. When you come out, return the way you came and turn right to return to the Sunnidale Road.

Continue along the Sunnidale Road until you reach a T-junction where the Sunnidale Road meets Brentwood Road (County Road 40). The old Sunnidale Road would have carried on directly over the intersection, continued until it reached the 30th sideroad at about Utopia, then it would have swung northwest to meet Brentwood Road at about McKinnon Road.

Turn right onto Brentwood Road. At the junction with McKinnon Road, where the old Sunnidale Road would have re-joined, is the location of the planned site of the town of Ripon. This town was laid out by William Hawkins in his survey of 1833 but was never settled. Instead, people settled in Angus.

Continue along Brentwood Road to Brentwood. At the point where the Northern Railway crossed the Sunnidale Road, Andrew and Lewis Anger laid out the settlement of Brentwood. In the 1880s, the settlement had two sawmills, shops, two hotels, a brick schoolhouse, and two churches.

Continue north to Sunnidale Corners. Henry Seelor was the first settler sometime after 1834. The Sunnidale Road may have been extended from here to Duntroon to connect with the Old Mail Road to Meaford and Owen Sound.

Continue north to Wasaga Beach. The planned village of Hythe was to be built where the present Sunnidale Road meets County Road 92. The site is now part of Wasaga Beach.

Turn right onto County Road 92 and drive to the traffic lights. Turn left to the harbour. Here, at the mouth of the Nottawasaga River, is the old port of Nottawasaga. At one time this was more important than Collingwood and Penetanguishene. (More)

Wasaga Beach has two important claims to fame:

• The first flight from mainland Canada took place on August 8, 1934 when James R Ayling and Leonard G Reid took off in the "Trail of the Caribou" for Baghdad. Unfortunately, they had to land in London, England the next day having flown 3700 miles in 31 hours.
• The schooner Nancy, built in 1789, was sunk two miles up the Nottawasaga River during the War of 1812. You can visit the site in Wasaga Beach.