Looking for suggestions on hikes in southern Ontario

Paul,

An easy shot is up to Tobermory at the top of the Bruce peninsula and hike down through the park down the Bruce Trail. There are sites in the park, but once you are outside the park you have to go commercial along with a bit of road walk.

Check out the brucetrail.org

No shortage of water either…

MZEN

Hi Paul,

Algonquin Provincial Park has a couple of good weekend-long backpacking routes, and tons of paddling routes. The backpacking routes all feel quite different even though they're relatively close together. There's a great interactive map:
http://www.algonquinmap.com/

Frontenac Provincial Park is pretty good for an easy overnighter or short weekend. The paddling routes are pretty well travelled but I've hiked there a few times and never seen anyone else on the trails. It's a good bet for a holiday weekend as there's much less traffic getting out of the city in that direction.

Bon Echo has a short backpacking trail and lots of paddling.

There's also the wilderness section of the Ganaraska trail. I haven't been on it, but I've heard good stuff.

Bruce Trail has a couple of backcountry sites up by Tobermory: High Dump and Stormhaven. The Bruce Peninsula is spectacular, and doesn't get many blackflies — makes for a good may/june hike when the rest of Ontario is intolerable.

Killarney is a bit far for a weekend, but well worth it if you have more time.

Ontario has an interactive crown land atlas online:
http://www.ontario.ca/environment-and-energy/crown-land-use-policy-atlas

Canadian Canoe Routes has a good database of paddling routes in ontario:
http://www.myccr.com/canoedb/on.htm