Box of Birds Video trail guide – Grade 3 Rotorua Redwoods New Zealand

Box of Birds is one of my favourite trails in Rotorua. It has fun technical sections and loads of flow.

Its given grade 3 on the Whakarewarewa Forest maps but I think it definitely deserves grade 4. Have a look at the video and see what you think, let me know your thoughts in the comments below or on the YouTube video. I’ll put trail data and trailforks links below so you can easily find it and ride it for yourself.

Trailforks Trail Data – www.trailforks.com/trails/box-of-birds/

Distance: 1,142 m
Climb: 3 m
Descent -153 m
Avg time: 00:05:16

Trailforks says:

The first section is easy cross-country, with an avoidable dropoff (go right) at the point where it crosses Tokorangi Pa Rd. The trail continues on the other side of the road – a mixture of steep turns and drops and flatter sections, often slippery after rain, more like a grade 4 level of riding. Three easier lines are part of the Fluffy Ducks lines to bypass the most difficult sections. The last section of the trail, after a log feature with several options to cross it, is an easy coast through to the junction of the trail with the lower section of As You Do.

This is the first video I’ve where put gauges on screen. I’ve used the free DashWare software and I really like the utility of them. POV video can often mis-communicate some information (e.g. gradient) and having on screen data like a speed-o-meter and GPX file maps and graphs is pretty neat.

The GPX data is extracted from the Strava activity of the day’s ride. Its not perfect and I can see a few places where it doesn’t feel perfectly synced.

I’m a bit concerned it will be a bit distracting but I think I’ve picked gauges that are relatively unobtrusive for those who are not interested in the displayed data. On the whole I really like the on-screen data, I find it really interesting but please let me know your thoughts either in the blog post comments here below or in the YouTube comments.