I loaded up the trailer with about 2/3 of the weight it will have (no food, or non-cycling clothing, etc) and with the new rear rack and trunk bag I set off. I rode along some undulating roads — including a busy stretch during peak hour (quite scary — and some of the cars/trucks were not intimidated by the trailer) — to see how much impact the weight would have. Fast deceleration was different and made me a little wary. I also notice that it does give you a good push downhill. I had read reviews that trailers can be a little unstable over 30km, and on one stretch I got it up to just on 52km. It seemed to handle fine — I did grip the bars pretty tight though!

My road route made a loop of Cootes Paradise and I ended up in the Dundas Valley. I stumbled across an access point along the Hamilton-Brantford rail trail and thought I would give 5km of it a look. I ended up riding a around 12km of the trail. Reaching what used to be summit station — where the long steady climb peaked at the top of the Niagara Escarpment. On the descent, I ran into the forecast storm and, whilst brief, it did drop a bit of water on me. It was good to see how the dry sack on the trailer and the inbuilt rain cover on my Arkel trunk bag handled the rain — as well as the splash-guard I installed today on the downtube. I am glad that I had that!

So, all in all I clocked about 50km today (a small distance when considering I ill be clocking 100km or more when travelling). The rail trail was a great ride and I will be doing the whole 77km of it soon — with my camera. It's nice to ride with no cars and to be surrounded by green, then to camp at the end of it — I can't wait!