Spinistry

10/20/2026

10/02/2026

It's still raining down there and rain is forecast through the weekend. At this point if would be an exercise in futility trying to verify a reliable and safe course for Sunday. We have made the difficult decision to postpone to a different weekend later this year.

We will be finalizing Plan C over the weekend. Registered riders will receive all of those details as soon as they are confirmed on our end. More details will be posted at the earliest practical opportunity. We would appreciate it if you waited until those details are shared before asking questions.

Any participants who paid for a trial membership to enter this event will be able to apply those funds towards another event or a Club Spinistry membership if unable to make the new date. If you opted for the event fee insurance you are entitled to a full refund if you choose that option. Please follow the directions from the insurance confirmation you received at registration.

Any annual Club Spinistry members who opted into the event will still be entered into this event and eligible to participate even if your membership has expired by the new date.

More details soon.

10/01/2026

We are moving on to Plan B for this weekend with a high possibility of moving on to Plan C if needed.

Plan B is a 10am Sunday start. The rains have already been heavier than expected and starting later than expected when we thought we would know things by Friday. Additionally, significant overnight rains are expected tonight. There is no way for us to know what the course might be like by early Saturday.

There seems a strong possibility of the rains continuing through the weekend. We may be forced to push to another weekend completely but it is too early to make that determination. We are watching things closely.

We have Sunday, 12/6 pencilled in as Plan C at the moment if needed. This is NOT a definite. We're making sure of venue availability and the earliest practical date after my surgery. Other factors could come in to play if ultimately we are required to nail down a Plan C.

You will receive full credit towards another event if you paid for a trial membership to attend Saturday and are unable to make whatever alternate day we settle on. Please wait until after we know for certain which alternate date we roll with before making those arrangements.

09/30/2026

Weather is ALWAYS a factor & droughts end in floods...

Currently we still expect the roads to be fine for Saturday and Plan A is still business as usual. That said, we recognize that the unexpected can happen with storms like this one particularly when the course covers such a wide area.

We plan to mark course and verify conditions on Friday. If we find things not to our liking we will move to a 10am start on Sunday. We don't expect to need that fallback plan but we have one in place just in case.

09/29/2026

This email with route link was sent to registered participants. Please be sure to reply if you still plan to ride the RAT this year.

All Changes Have Been Verified

Apologies for the delay. Health issues and an extra long summer have made it difficult to get out and physically verify our planned reroutes for this year. We finally finished the project this past weekend.

This is the full length of the planned route. This will be too big of a file for navigation devices to handle. I will chunk it down to smaller and more manageable segments later this week. Please reply to this email if you still plan to attempt the RAT this year and what your expected daily mileage might be. I will send a link to all of the chunked segments by early next week (likely sooner).

The main reasons for the change were to avoid the Northeast Texas Trail which year over year has proven to be unreliable. Additionally, we are making some minor changes to better incorporate the RAT into the full coast to coast USA Trail. We do appreciate feedback about any sections you ride along the RAT to "finalize" those sections of The USA Trail. Thank you in advance.

Riders are still welcome to ride the NETT without penalty but be aware that will likely affect your total mileage. I know there are contruction issues along US 82 between Dekalb and New Boston as well as trail maintenance concerns between Detroit and Clarksville.

Please review the route below and let me know what additional information you might need. If I don't receive a reply I will assume that your aren't able to attempt the RAT this year.

Link in email

Kevin

09/27/2026

Verified last of the route updates for the Rat today. I should have all details to registered riders by Monday evening. This version eliminates the NETT because the status of an particular section at any particular time is unreliable. Riders have the option to utilize any available sections of the NETT at their own choosing without penalty.