While I think that for the most part while on tour avoiding walking where you brush against tall grass or low brush is the best way to avoid ticks. I realized that I didn't address repellants at all. I have not felt that I needed to use repellants for ticks when on tour but for various other outdoor activities I have used them especially when I was living in prime Lyme Disease country. Permethrin was the primary one mostly on my shoes or boots. I did also have a pair of zip of leg pants and some jeans that were treated but since I wore shorts most of the time they weren't used as much.
As has been mentioned DEET is recommended for ticks (and mosquitos). Personally I have found that I prefer using relatively low concentration stuff and splashing it on liberally rather than using the high concentration stuff. I use it mostly for mosquitos though. I use a Cutters product with a DEET content of only 7% and find it works very well. I'd much rather spray that on liberally than meagerly use 100% DEET. Living in Florida the last 5 years I have had plenty of chance to test it's effectiveness against mosquitos and I like the low concentration stuff fine. I have used it on a couple coast to coast and other tours as well as a good bit of back packing. You may need or may not to apply more often, but I have found the stuff works fine. It is easy to get good coverage when you use a product you can splash on liberally and even spraying on liberally I think you probably get less exposure than using 100% DEET.
I have not really used DEET for ticks, but I'd think the same strategy would apply.
Another tool in the arsenal is Permethrin. It is applied to the clothing, not the skin and clothing that is pretreated is available. It is sprayed on ahead of time and allowed to dry before wearing. It stays on through laundering at least through some number of cycles. Since ticks are picked up at the ankles or lower legs (If you find them elsewhere they probably crawled around a while and wound up there) shoes, socks, and pant legs are a good place to use Permethrin.
Oh on another note... I have found that often the worst days for ticks have sometimes been on the few warm days in the off season when you think it is too cold. Like a couple days where it gets unseasonably warm and everything thaws out when it isn't time for it to be warm. Watch it on those days. When I lived there, trail running in Maryland, a warm December day I'd sometime find a tick crawling on me, more often even it seemed than in Summer.
