North from Atlanta, GA

[onebikeoneworld]

Hello, I'm 9 months into the US leg of my trip. I've done a loop of the country (you can see my map on my blog at www.onebikeoneworld.com ) and am looking to see some more. I'm currently in Palm Beach, FL and am going to find myself up in Atlanta in a week or two. From there I'm thinking of heading north and want to spend 6 weeks or so seeing what I can and am thinking of the following...

TN, KY, OH, WV, VA, DE, NJ, NY then New England (I forget the states)

I've attached a map of something I quickly through together to give a visual overview. Does anyone have any suggestions for where to go? This will be in March -> mid-April and while cold doesn't bother me, I don't really want day after day of rain.

[DaveB]

If you leave Atlanta in early March, cold won't be the real problem but snow, sleet, freezing rain and ice are bound to be at some or several points on your proposed route, particularly in the higher elevations of TN, KY and WV.  This is a bad time of year to be riding through the mid-west and east-central part of the country.

[onebikeoneworld]

When does it become not a bad time? Cold is fine, it was around 10f overnight when I was at the Grand Canyon back in November, but even though I'm English day in day out rain kinda drags me down.

[Pat Lamb]

I'd say things get better around the beginning to middle of April.  You may run into a day and a half of bad weather as a front comes through, but otherwise it'll probably be nice weather.  High around 70, low in the 40s or 50s.  Oh, yeah a half a day of south wind before the fronts, and a day of north wind after.  Just watch out for the occasional late frost!

[sedges]

SE weatehr is sooo variable from year to year.  This year we are having warm spring weather in February.  The last time it was this warm in February we had a mid-March winter storm that dumped 20 inches of snow in North GA and temperatures fell below 0 F the day after the snow.

I would recommend taking your time on the southern part of the route so you are not getting into the northern part until mid-April.  Watch your weather reports carefully and be prepared to hunker down some where with good shelter for a few days if a late winter storm moves through.  It usually warms back up quickly after those late winter events.

Normally I would recommend against your plan, but you seem to be able to handle adverse conditions with common sense.

Watch the forecast, be prepared for late winter storms with ice, snow and cold.

Also Atlanta is a terrible city to enter and leave on bicycle.  If you don't have specific reason to go there I would avoid it.  I you have to come to ATL consider leaving via the Silver Comet Trail to northern AL.  100 miles of paved trail!