Uncle Dave,

Could you be a little more specific about the weight you plan on carrying, your weight, your bicycle type, and the roads? Those factors would help for anyone giving advice.

I am familiar with Old Man Mountain racks, which are inexpensive, strong, and made in Santa Barbara, CA. I have talked to the guy who fabricates them, and he is a very nice and accomodating person. He makes racks that accomodate bikes with suspension and without.

Bruce Gordon's reputation for racks is unsurpassed; perhaps there are people who make similarly excellent racks and bikes, but I can't imagine there are better. They do cost more, but you get what you pay for.

Cycocommute suggests a trailer. For certain kinds of trips and roads, a trailer is a great option to consider. The BOB single wheel trailer is regularly used for extended trips in the Utah desert and dusty trails of South America and Vietnam. If you are interested, do a search of old posts. No new posts on that topic are necessary. A two wheel trailer is more ideal for roads and certain kinds of touring - I have a Burley Nomad that's great but wouldn't be appropriate for off-road touring, IMO.

As far as forks go, you can either keep your suspension and use a trailer, keep it with racks and deal with potential (if any) compromises, or get a decent steel fork with rack braze-ons and use a nice fat tire. A Schwalbe Marathon XR or similar tire would work for that system. But you should really give more details first. Whatever you do, make sure you go. It sounds great.