The first ladder has plants growing on the left of it, right where he rides. It doesnt make sense for plants to grow on the trail. The second ladder looks, to me, like it was put in for drainage. I may well be very wrong, but from my perspective, it appears that the ladder was put in to bridge over the puddle which would inevitably form.
He could have ridden the ladder bridges. I just don't think that making the trail wider is necessarily a good thing. Again, I may be wrong.
dons flame retardant suit
No need to don the suit, but you need to put some proper perspective on Nicoles.
Of course you want to ride down the center of the trail where possible, and utilize the ladders where possible, the ladders on Nicoles were all added to avoid erosion.
The original lines on that trail have long given way later lines that have emerged as riders have started riding the trail much faster on bigger bikes. Ironically, alot of the ladders aren't anywhere near the original lines. And some of the newer, faster lines take the rider wide of the ladders. Ride the trail alot and you'll realize that.
As Lady G and Dantes have said above, Nicoles is an old trail that gets pounded by an amazing amount of traffic on it, and the BBY allows no official maintainence on it. Lots of beginner riders too. Alot of people on this board learned how to ride on it. So it does get a little wider every year. Eventually the BMBA will get the go ahead to maintain it. The BMBA AGM is on the 18th so I hope you guys that are chirping come out and let us know what you want to do to help out.
I think Lady G's and Dantes' opinion are pretty strong here as I know for a fact they ride up on that trail alot.
I still think it was a pretty cool little video, on an existing trail, where the filmer didn't cut, nail or dig up anything to make the vid.
.
