30lb including the bike is pretty lightweight stuff. I'm 62 and enjoy big hills. They key IMHO is simply gearing. Obviously you have to have the legs to make it but if you have to push hard every revolution you simply can't do it. 30lb isn't much but the first thing you can control is gearing and a typical loaded touring gearing should bring you down to about 20gear inches. Even 18 isn't too low. That assumes you can spin at 80 or so; if you mash at 40 and that's all you do big hills with a touring load will probably be impossible. Develop the ability to spin at 85. On big hills you may get down to 60 or something but your gearing should be low enough to ensure you are not having to push down hard no matter what. My wife and I were once passed (rudely) by a young 20 something woman on a road bike. We were fully loaded. She hit a mountain climb ahead of us. An hour later we passed her. She had racing gearing and was mashing hard with her racing gearing and we were going just a tiny bit faster than her so we took a long time to pass her. It was beautiful.