Quote Originally Posted by mzone View Post
I think your choice is going to come down to size availability first and load carrying capacity second. If you're not going to do fully loaded (as in camping/cooking/multi-day treks), you have a few more options.
We do want to do long self-supported tours, but I'm actually thinking they won't require many more things than just a couple nights on the C&O did. We'd have to wash clothes, obviously, and maybe carry more food if we are between towns and can't access food, but the bulkiest items were our sleeping bags, sleeping pads and our tent, which you need no longer how far you go for. Am I being naive in assuming this?

For the C&O my husband pulled a trailer and had a small food bag on his back rack, and I had two loaded panniers on my hybrid, and we were fine - so I'm thinking load isn't a HUGE issue but please tell me if I am wrong! I assume that a light touring or cross bike would handle a load basically the same as my hybrid?