Navigating the Map

Mouse controls

Left-click & drag

Pan the map.

Right-click & drag

Tilt and rotate the view.

Scroll wheel

Zoom in and out.

Map controls panel (top-right)

Info

Reopen this welcome screen.

+ / −

Zoom in and out.

Recenter

Fly back to the full-trail overview and reset any tilt or rotation.

Basemap

Switch between Satellite, OpenStreetMap, and Topographic.

Overlays

Toggle Contour Lines, place Labels, and 3D Hillshade independently. Enabling 3D Hillshade auto-tilts the view to show terrain relief.

A+ / A−

Scale the UI up or down for your screen size.

Marker size

Drag the slider to scale all waypoint markers on the map.

Route Panel

Click any coloured trail line on the map to open the Route Panel at the bottom. It shows the elevation profile along with key stats: distance, elevation gain/loss, max/min elevation, and difficulty rating.

Prev / Next

Step through all 25 routes in trail order without closing the panel.

⇄

Flip the display to south-to-north order, useful if you're hiking NtS.

Hover

Live distance and elevation readout over the chart, with a pin snapped to the corresponding point on the map.

Click & drag

Select a segment on the chart; gain, loss, and distance for the selection appear below.

Filter Panel

The Filters panel on the left controls what appears on the map.

Markers

Trailheads

Official ECT path endpoints and access points.

Campsites

Backcountry sites with quality ratings (1–6). Expand to filter by quality range using the slider.

Water Sources

Streams, ponds, and reliable water points.

Scenic Spots

Notable viewpoints and photogenic locations.

Use All to show or hide all markers at once. Enable Clustering to group nearby markers at lower zoom levels. Click any marker on the map to see its details.

Route colours

Route Name

Each of the 25 named paths gets a unique colour.

Difficulty

Easy / Moderate / Difficult / Strenuous.

Type

Coastal Path vs. Community Walk segments.

Click a legend item to isolate that group; hover to preview it on the map; click again to clear. Use Filter markers to show only waypoints near the currently coloured routes.

Hi, I'm Max!

I'm an outdoors enthusiast and software developer based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In summer 2024, my mother and I completed a three-week north-to-south thru-hike of the ECT.

During the planning of that trip, I found there was a lack of digital maps or data, and that sifting through spreadsheets, as great and as useful as they are, was much more frustrating than I thought it ought to be - given the digital era we seem to find ourselves in - and so throughout the hike, I used the Gaia GPS app to record waypoints as I went.

ECTmap.ca is my way of giving back. It's a personal project born out of love for the ECT, Newfoundland(ers), and a wish to make planning hopefully just a little easier. I hope it helps you get the most out of your time on the East Coast Trail! 😄

If you've found this site useful, please consider supporting the ECTA ❤

Map Attributions

Satellite

Tiles © Esri (World Imagery)

OpenStreetMap

Tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors, © CARTO (CartoDB Dark)

Topographic

Tiles © OpenTopoMap (CC-BY-SA)

Labels

© Esri (World Boundaries and Places)

Contour Lines

© Natural Resources Canada

Terrain / Hillshade

© Mapzen / AWS