Roger Pierce's June Adventure

PAC Tour

Ridge of the Rockies

19 Days, 2250 Miles, 92,000' of climbing

The Gainesville Cyclist article by Roger Pierce

If you want to experience the outer limits of bicycle touring, Lon Haldeman and Susan Notorangelo's PAC Tours will deliver. Lon and Sue were the first winners of the Race Across America, and they have turned their passion for long distance riding into a long standing business. While they are most famous for their ocean to ocean tours, in the last few years they have offered several other routes, one of which is the Ridge of the Rockies, from El Paso, Texas, to Calgary, Alberta. The route covers around 2250 miles in 19 days, with over 92,000 feet of climbing.

I ramped up my training miles big time immediately after tax season ended, putting in a monthly record total of 1747 miles in May, including ten century or better rides. It was then off to El Paso to meet the other 61 people involved in the endeavor. Only 12 of us were "rookies", the rest having done as many as five previous tours. Some were doing their second tour after a layoff of five years; the group I hung out with had done the Northern Transcontinental in 1993. There were riders from Australia, Canada, and a large group from Europe.

If you would like a day by day account of the ride, see the links below. My roommate, Mike Ingram, a professional writer, did most of the writeups, and I proofed them when he finished before bedtime. On a typical day, breakfast was served in the parking lot at 6 or 6:30, and most riders were on the road in under a half hour after that. Rest stops were provided about every couple of hours, with lunch set up so we hit it around noon. On the two easy days, lunch was at our destination. Other days, arrival ranged from around 2 pm to as late as 7 pm. Being a first class tour, we stayed in motels every night. The daily challenge was to see if we could find an all-you-can-eat buffet to devastate.

The most spectacular riding day was a 109 miler from Durango to Montrose, Colorado. We started straight up, climing 5500' to the top of Coal Bank Pass (el 10640') and then after a little dip we were on Molas Pass (el 10910'). After lunch in Silverton (watching the steam train arrive) it was on up to Red Mountain Pass (el 11118'), the high point of the tour, followed by a spectacular descent into Ouray.

The weather on the trip started out cool to luke warm, and soon turned cool to cold (to appreciate this, I listened to the news from Florida about 100+ degree temps and wildfires devouring Waldo). They actually have real winds out west; riding in a 20 to 30 mph cross wind is not fun, as we had to do on several days. Then there was the day of riding into a 25 to 40 mph head wind, with gusts to 60! But all this was balanced with stunning scenery, ranging from desert vistas to jagged Rocky Mountain peaks, and days where the riding was almost all down hill. In northern Colorado we hit our first really cold riding going over Grand Mesa mountain. The next day, snow forced us to go over Douglas pass in the vehicles. The coldest part of the trip was the descent from Logan pass in Glacier National Park in Montana, with temps in the low 30s and us wet from drizzle on the ascent.

Every inch we rode in Canada was into a stiff headwind or in rain, or both. Don't think I'll go back there again. The tour finished with a gala banquet where everyone was presented with a finishing plaque; the next day we were off to all points of the globe.