Originally Posted by
Machka
Are you serious? You wanted to cross the US starting in late August/early September? You must like cycling in snow! Mid-July is probably a better choice ... how long do you think your trip will take?
And .... what hills across the northern states are you referring to? Most of the northern states are prairie land ... flat, flat, flat.
Well, I was originally planning to cycle the Southern states, so late August/early September would have been pretty good actually.
According to the ACA, the first two thirds (West to East) on the Northern route consists of rolling scenery quite a few major climbs:
"There are four major passes in the first 300 miles, and Sherman Pass is the highest at 5,575 feet. It then becomes rolling, the route following river valleys until you reach Glacier National Park. Logan Pass, on Going-to-the-Sun Road, is the last major climb. There's a series of roller-coaster hills heading into Canada. Once you get about 20 miles east of the Rocky Mountains, you're truly in Big Sky country with moderately hilly plains. The plains roll out through Montana and become hilly in western North Dakota, and then the route flattens out in eastern North Dakota [...] As you enter Iowa, you may think that the terrain is going to flatten out, but the hills continue after leaving the river [...]
I've got three months to do this trip, so time won't really be an issue.