Not saying that at all. The odds of major road-closing snow in October is pretty unlikely, at least in California. Late afternoon thunderstorms are always a risk in the mountains, but you can deal with that.
My point is that leaving a little later than now was now problem west-to-east and I doubt iut would be a problem the other direction, either. I think that anything that has you finishing up by mid-October would be fine, and most likely by the end of October would be okay. Nights and mornings would be pretty chilly, though, but again, you can deal with that.
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