Trail Boss
New member
The coordinates of the "screen center" are displayed in the browser's URL like so: labs.strava.com/heatmap/#15.38/-73.88776/44.21842/hot/all However, there's no crosshair displayed at "screen center" so it's an impractical way of achieving what you want.
You don't need to do the backflips you described (geo-calibrating a screenscrape of the map). Just use a navigation/mapping app that allows you to display the Strava Heatmap, preferably as an overlay on top of another map. You'll be able to read the lat/long from it. The attached image shows Strava's Heatmap on top of OpenStreetMap displayed by Locus Map. Coords can be easily acquired from any point on the map.
If you intend to use OpenStreetmap's Notes, as a means of indicating errors or suggesting additions/modifications, I highly recommend you get an OpenStreetMap account (free). If you don't, your notes will be authored as "Anonymous" and map-editors cannot contact you directly with any questions they may have about your note.
I've found it to be invaluable for mapping low-traffic trails. At best I would find one GPS track from die-hard hiking acquaintances (who concoct very creative routes). Even Strava's 2017 Heatmap shows a paucity of tracks on these trails but it's still a treasure trove compared to having only one track. There were about 5 trails in the High Peaks that were approximated but now the Heatmap has allowed me to correct them.
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TIP: Use Caltopo to see the changes made to OSM's trails.
Caltopo has a later called Mapbuilder Overlay. It shows trails derived from OSM. However, Caltopo refreshes this layer very infrequently (maybe 4 times a year?) so it usually lags behind the changes made in OSM. So if you display MapBuilder Overlay on top of OSM, you see the before and after for all trails. Here's an area in the High Peaks that was recently updated in OSM. The solid lines represent the old version and the dashed lines are the revised trails.https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=44.09914,-73.90902&z=16&b=om&a=mba
For people unfamiliar with OpenStreetMap (OSM), what you see in the browser is a pale shadow of what it actually contains. What you see on the map is limited by what the map's designer wishes to reveal. The standard "Mapnik" version of OpenStreetMap (what you typically see in a browser) is fairly basic. However, other derivations of the map can reveal more. For example, some versions reveal the location of guideposts, waterfalls, springs, ladders, stairs, a trail's visibility and difficulty ratings, its marker color, significant boulders, terrain characteristics, etc.
iAmKrzys has linked to Waymarked Trails which shows trail "relations", namely a collection of related trail segments. For example, the Appalachian Trail is not drawn as one line from Georgia to Maine but as many segments. A "relation" organizes the segments into one entity.
About 18 months ago I took on the task of revising all of OSM's trails in the High Peaks area and bringing them up to the documentation standards found in Germany and Switzerland's trail networks. I'm currently in the process of adding major staircases and ladders. The final step will be to tidy up the difficulty-rating for all trails (80% are done). It's been a very interesting hobby composed of fieldwork in the High Peaks plus map-gymnastics back home on the PC. I also picked the brains of locals who've spent many years hiking in the High Peaks.
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