I own both panniers and a trailer but won't offer an opinion as I've never toured off road.
I will offer an opinion on 90 miles a day. Why? The GAP, so i've heard, is one of the prettiest tours you can take along the east coast. At 90 miles a day you aren't going to see much of it. You are going to speed thru it.
We all have schedules to keep, but if you can't take the time to enjoy an area, what's the point?
I will tell you i spent years riding motorcycles to all four corners of this country. But I did it as a member of the Ironbutt Association. I would ride 2000 miles to a National Park just to get my National Park Passport book stamped. And then as fast as i could i was gone to get to the next park. I rode to a lot of National parks, over 300 in fact, but i saw none of them. The challange was to get the stamps, not enjoy the parks.
I rode a lot of miles and squared off a lot of tires, but didn't see much of anything past the superslab. I made a big effort to change up that mentality with Bicycle touring. It's one of the reasons I went to bike touring. It's the opposite end of the spectrum.
There is a reason the tour company offers a 5 day tour. Think about it.
Last edited by tom cotter; 01-28-13 at 03:54 PM.