Question about the "Locals guide to North shore trails"

So I just popped in to Cove bikes and bought the trail book. Top notch guide, amazing trail descriptions, detailed directions, what a great resource to have.

There's one thing that I can't figure out though, I'm probably missing something obvious, but I can't find any info on it in the book.

In the detailed trail description sections, there is a number that I assume is some sort of coordinates to the location of the trail head. Like I said, I'm probably missing something obvious but I can't figure out what to do with those numbers, I tried punching them into Google earth and Google maps as well an internet search but I can't tell what I'm supposed to do with them..

An example of one is: 10 U 501910 5465462.

Maybe if I had an actual real GPS and not just a fancy phone, the numbers would make sense to me?

Hi Chris,

Thanks for buying the book! Those are gps coordinates based on WGS-84 coordinate system. If you have a GPS or even a GPS app set to read coordinates based in WSG-84 it would take you to the trailheads. Fortunately all the trailheads are now marked so this detail probably isn't necessary.

Have a good ride!

Perfect, thanks!

I knew it had to be something simple that I was missing…

In fact it is a UTM coordinate that uses WGS-84 to represent the shape of the globe. There are others such as NAD27 that you would see on older Canadian government maps or NAD83 on newer Canadian government maps. NAD83 and WGS84 are almost identical, one is just North American and the other is global.

To read that coordinate the full description would be

UTM Zone 10 North 501910 East 5465462 North

The East [HTML_REMOVED] North are metres from the origin of UTM Zone 10.

As MTB Trails says pop those into your GPS to get the trailhead location. Make sure you use WGS84 if you have an option. If you used NA27 you may in the field see your GPS being 100m away from the waypoint.