to late to ride?

[gman1964]

I'm thinking of riding from iowa to idaho using the northern tier route and was hoping that I can get some input on if I do this ride in october/november that was to late in the winter?

[JayH]

I would imagine in the anywhere in the higher elevations can certainly get snow in October on.  Not sure the route the northern Tier goes through though...

Jay

[driftlessregion]

This is from the North Cascades National Park website (http://www.nps.gov/noca/): "During an average year heavy snow and continuous avalanches bury the highway beyond Ross Lake Trailhead from mid-November to April. " Ross Lake is only a three day ride from the start in Anacortes on the Northern Tier Route. Temperatures will start dropping soon at night. I was there last week and wished I was on my bike! The weather was fabulous: warm in the sun, cool at night and clear skies, in contrast to two years ago when I rode it on my bike in early June and it was cloudy/rainy. It was great to see what I missed two years ago.

[MrBent]

I agree with the others.  You'd really be pushing it to ride that far north that late in the year.  If you finish by the end of Oct., you could probably pull it off, but it would still be "ify".  I'm riding a TransAm next year and plan on cutting through the South West in Oct. to early Nov.--NM, AZ, So. Ca.  Nov. down there in the deserts is PERFECT!  Maybe from Iowa you could head due south and start west once you're far enough down to avoid the worst of the cold mountians?  Maybe just hook up with the Souther Tier route; then you'd be fine.

Cheers,

Scott