I highly recommend just buying a 9 speed triple mtb crank.
I use a 44/32/22 and cannot emphasize how perfect this setup is for the weight you think you may be carrying and riding in mountains with long climbs.
I have ridden my Troll a lot in mountains loaded up close to what you are thinking, and the chain rings are just great for me.
The 32 is your general flatish ring, and I only change into the 44 at around 25kph or so, and really appreciate the lower range of the 32 for a heavy bike for most flattish situations, which invariably always have some ups.
The 22 is again great for climbing, and I have spent days and days climbing at 6, 7, 8, 10kph and having the low gear of 22/34 in my case (11-34) gives 16.7 gear inches for a low gear, and I have used this gear a lot, and even if I dont need it always, it is really nice to have.

the other advantage of a mtb triple is that I find that I use all of my gears in the day, I certainly use all of my cassette and I switch from the 22 to 32 to 44 often enough (but not too much) so that I am certain that this has the advantage of spreading the wear around all of the drivetrain, so stuff wears more evenly over time.

the only downside to a mtb triple is that unloaded, the 32 mid ring can be a bit short, so you shift more often between the 32 and 44.--BUT heavily loaded and with climbs, its the best setup in my opinion.

I used to think this crank setup was too low for its own good, but after getting convinced from someone on here who has toured a ton with this setup, AND realizing that for touring in Latin America, one needs to carry more stuff and the gradients are steeper than what one generally sees in N America or Europe--and this is the case, and why I was so happy I went this route for setting up my Troll. I have spent about 4 months touring with this bike, and really can't be happier.

I'd keep the 48/36/26 for future use maybe, as its a great crankset, and as mentioned, its easy peasy to change the 26 to a 24 or 22, giving easier climbing gears at a cheap and easy change, but I find the 48 to be too tall really to be used that much, and anyway, I can still pedal my 44/11 to about 55kph , so thats fine for me, so there is no downside to it.