When I ride for 4 days I carry the same gear I do when riding for weeks. The differene would be only apparent if I was going to carry more gear between re-stocking, or had some kind of weird circumstance that required way more odd changes of clothing. So with my load in place I find I mostly use the lower two chain rings for riding, say 95% of the time. When the bike is unloaded I rarely use the granny and use the higher two chain rings. So to me your dilemna sounds like exactly what I would expect if I was riding my touring bike unloaded. On top of which your gearing sounds already a little high. You will some day curse yourself if you remove the granny gear