Thanks tons for the input!

To answer your question, the current crankset is 46x38 which seems like fairly average CX gearing, I mentioned 50/34 so I could get the 34 tooth small ring, but I do see SRAM offers a 48/34 with the Apex. Total newbie to both CX and touring though, so maybe I'm misinformed. I like the idea of a mountain double, especially if I don't have to change anything else, I can just swap cranksets before a tour (will SRAM mountain cranks fit road BB?), and I don't see the top end being an issue while doing loaded touring.

Interestingly, I noticed Salsa spec Apex brifters with the X7 FD on the Fargo 2 build kit. I wonder how well that works? Is there something different about the actuation of the Apex shifters that doesn't carry over up the line to Rival? I looked through manuals SRAM has online and couldn't ever find any info about how much cable pull shifters and FD use per actuation. Any idea where to find such info?