Pacific Atlantic Cycling Tours

We start the tour riding a 75 mile day to the tourist town of Julian, California, located in the Volcan Mountains. Our next three days crossing the desert with 65-110 miles distances PAC Tour support includes plenty of ice and fluids.

The days climbing the mountains of Arizona offer some of the best scenery and challenging riding of the tour. The climbs up Yarnell Hill and Mingus Mountain are both memorable accomplishments. We will include plenty of local history across New Mexico and riding on old sections of Route 66 in Texas and Oklahoma.
Each day offers new and varied terrain as we ride eastward.

Arrive in Tucson and saddle up for a tour filled with sizzlin' southwest history every day! The first day we ride 54 miles to the artist community of Tubac. Next day onto Patagonia! The following morning we'll head out on an easy 56 miles through the wine country of Elgin before spending an evening walking the wooden sidewalks of historic Tombstone. Bisbee and Benson are the last towns on this tour.

This tour is for riders who are looking for a fun cycling holiday. It's the easiest Desert Camp Week. You'll enjoy this tour more if you can average 10 mph to have more time to explore the old southwest along the way. If you want to train for racing and average faster than 15 mph you should not attend this week. Please consider joining a longer mileage week of Desert Camp.

This week is for riders who want to ride long miles everyday, but stay at one location for four nights. The first day's ride to Nogales offers a change in scenery then we head to Sierra Vista (Holiday Inn Express) for four nights. On the last day we ride back to Tucson. Daily rides can be customized for riders with specific intensity. Evening cycling programs will be provided on a variety of topics. Each day will offer routes with 60-100 mile options.

The riders at this camp will range from intermediate to experienced. All riders should be able to ride 50 miles in 4 hours with stops.

We have not ridden this route for the past 8 years and it is a great tour to start Desert Camp. The lower elevations of these towns provide warmer springtime cycling conditions. We depart Tucson and head northwest toward the desert towns of Casa Grande, Gila Bend and Wickenburg. Distance are about 80 miles per day without too many climbs. Our route goes out and back through the Saguaro National Park. We ride on Interstate 8 in and out of Gila Bend.

We need a minimum of 15 riders to run this tour. If you are interested in this classic tour please sign up soon and encourage your friends to join you!

This new week combines our favorite route sections from previous Mountain and Chiricahua Weeks. This tour includes two nights in Safford which will allow riders to ride 30 miles to the summit of Mt. Graham and back to Safford in one day (60 miles total). We will also spend two nights in Willcox that will allow everyone the chance to ride to the top of Chiricahua Mountain and back in one day (88 miles total). A winding 35-mile-long road that climbs steeply up the southern flank of 10,717-foot-high Mount Graham is the highlight and challenge of this week. We ride past the Chiricahua Mountains on our way back to Tombstone!

The Northern Tour is one of our longest running tours. It was started in 1992 following mostly the northern region across the United States. The route has changed from year to year, visiting various landmarks along the way.

Our route spends the first day exploring the coastal region of Puget Sound on Whidbey Island, finishing in Sedro Wooley.

The first days always included the major climbs over the Cascade Mountains in western Washington. The following days cross the wheat fields of eastern Washington with a visit to the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River.

The route returns to the mountains in Idaho and cross thing Continental Divide near Butte, Montana. The biggest climb of the tour is over the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming. The 10 - 14% grades for over eight miles are a challenge for even the strongest riders.

South Dakota has some major highlights with a visit to Mount Rushmore and the Badlands National Parks. Leaving the mountains, the route enters the prairies of the Midwest, with over 500 miles of rolling grasslands and corn fields. The hills return again in eastern Minnesota as we cross the Mississippi River. Entering Wisconsin, the route has 200 miles of the most rural roads of the tour. The hilly terrain offers challenging riding with dozens of steep granny gear climbs.

The flat prairies begin again in Illinois and Indiana, without a major hill for almost 300 miles. If the wind is right, the next three days are good recovery days. Heading across Ohio, the terrain begins to change again, with more rolling hills. We will be riding many sections of the "Old Lincoln Highway" which was America’s first coast-to-coast highway designated and built from 1914 to 1916.

By the time we reach Pennsylvania, we are back in the mountains again. The grades can be steep as we ride the back roads across the state. Entering New York State, we will travel north of the Finger Lakes Region, with dozens of two mile climbs over continuous ridges.

The final days are through the forest of New Hampshire. We will arrive at the Atlantic Ocean on Rye Beach, New Hampshire. The whole experience of cross the country in 35 days and traveling over 3,800 miles is an amazing accomplishment.

Route 66 first became a recognized highway in 1926. It evolved with many different alignments that carried thousands of travelers from Illinois to California and back again. Our tour will explore these forgotten towns and sections by linking together many desolate pieces of original 1920 roadbed. 

Besides finding old concrete, we will experience the culture that defined America from 1920 to 1980. Route 66 is a unique tour that combines over 60 years of cross country history with a really fun bicycle adventure.