The trail was originally an old logging tote road, once known as the Burns Road, and crosses the site of a 1906-era Gillies Bros. dump camp at the mouth of Gilchrist Creek. Here logs from winter operations were dumped on the ice, waiting for the spring drive, then floated down the Montreal River and down the Ottawa. Lots of evidence of former logging can be seen along the trail if one watches carefully.

The west end of the trail ends at the portages between Anima Nipissing and Bay lakes. The Upper Portage, the primary portage today, was also an old logging...