god forbid, you could even look at an alu framed bike, like my Specialized Tricross, which I love as a light tourer, all around fun to ride zippy bike that can take wider tires, fenders, etc.

re gearing, the mentioned 50/39/30 with a rear cassette of up to 30 or 32 teeth is a minimum you'd want. There are not lots of bikes that come with smaller cranks (like a 48-36-26) but that would be ideal.

another reference, my bike with the 50/39/30 and 11-32 cassette gives a 25 gear inch low gear. If I were to load it up with over 30lbs or more, I would want to change the granny gear 30tooth chainring to a 26 tooth, to get down to 21 gear inches for steep stuff.