Like you I ride on small weekend tours with about 40 pounds of gear on the rear, I too ride in wet weather here in Fort Wayne Indiana, but I won't ride in snow! I haven't had any slippery moments with the Panaracer Pasela TG tire. Because the tire is not as beefy as the Schwalbe Marathon I did put a Pararacer FlatAway liner only in the rear tire since that's where most flats occur. So far neither the front nor the rear has had any flats but I've only been on two tours with those tires and it only rain once while riding home from a tour. I always check my tires after riding and there were no cuts or stuff stuck in the tires either.

I've heard the Maxxis was a good tire but after doing quite a bit of research on the Gore's internet, I found the Pasela TG were the most highly rated lightweight touring tire on the market. The tire only weighs 380 grms for a 27 1 1/4 size with wire bead and their cheap, I paid $32 at my LBS for each, I wanted the folding bead but couldn't find one stocked anywhere on the internet nor could my LBS find one, so I saved $20 each and got the wire bead.

Yes I'm touring on an old bike thus the 27" wheels and thus the reason I couldn't use Maxxis since they don't make that size. I have two touring bikes, but I'm using the oldest one, a bone stock low mileage mint condition Schwinn Le Tour Luxe. These bikes ride great, it looks like this one but it's not mine in the pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/swoosh/4494244605/ Really the only difference is between that one and mine is that I removed the original Advocet seat and put a Brooks B17 brown ti saddle on, and then Cinelli Imperal brown leather handlebar tape replaced the original black cotton tape, the pump is a Topeak Road Morph G, I have the original rack that came from the factory but I'm not using it due to it being a bit flimsy for my taste so I have the Tubus Cargo Classic, and I removed the stock kickstand.