>>2581258not sure about Canada, but here in the US historical topographical maps are online and you can search by area/year:
https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/viewerabandoned railrorads = old logging roads, those are one and the same, they typically go from the bottom of a creek to the top along the side.
They are found as dotted single lines (or sometimes double lines as unimproved roads) on topo maps. Find a tall nearby mountain, find a creek that runs down the side, and often there's remnants there.
It's not exactly bushwhacking but it's not really a normal trail either - depending on how much use it gets from fishermen and other locals in recent years.
You will have tons of fallen trees across it to clear - nobody clears those if a trail is abandoned - so it will be an obstacle course.
But you don't generally need historical topo maps, there are plenty of trails marked on topo maps that are now abandoned (as well as dedicated rail trail websites for some of the more obvious ones)
Lots of trails you see marked (with a three or four digit code and possibly a name) are now abandoned which you can (usually) verify by checking the interactive visitor map if its on federal land for the us forest service, or by calling the owner/maintainer of the land, assuming it is public land.
Another approach is to check the community content section of alltrails. There's lots of self-added listings for unpopular trails that can give you a sense of distance and elevation and sometimes have pictures or information. I've found cool stuff that way. It's going to have a catch if its not in the "curated" section - parking is hard, trail is washed out, road to get there sucks, etc.
Again this depends what biome ur in, but for mine it works out.
