I've noticed that most people recommend a suspension fork for off-road tours like the Great Divide, but not for road tours or expeditions. I like to ride off road as often as possible while on tour, so I think it would be really nice to have at times, but not a necessity.
While I agree the standard, dual piston, heavy fork is overkill, I've looked at some of the light weight forks:
1. the Headshox from Cannondale, but you can only use one with a C-Dale bike.
2. the Actiontec fork, with suspension in the head tube, but has no lock-out so forget it.
3. then in one thread someone mentioned this:
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l3...mini_stahl.jpg
what I like about it, it weighs a lot less than a heavy dual piston fork, and the suspension is replaceable if it breaks.or I think one could carry a steel rod to put in it's place, so you could keep on riding. But it's expensive and only available in Europe, so I might look for one to try the next time I'm there.