[pct-l] Good starting point and date if missing the desert?

[cat]

Hello
I'm in the very (very!) early days of planning a thru hike next year. Somewhat trickier as I'm in the UK! 
I just wondered if anyone could recommend a good starting point and the ideal starting date, if you wanted to miss out Southern California/the desert but aim to complete the rest of the trail (including the John muir stretch)? Ideally it would be somewhere that I could reach within a day or so from a major airport. 
Thanks very much,
Catherine