I tend to shy away from 'cross bikes for touring because of the short wheelbase/chainstays. If you have small feet you may not have to worry about clearance problems with the rear panniers but you won't know until you've purchased the bike and tried to put bags on it. Then it's too late to do much about it. Trailers solve some of those problems but trailers open up a whole other can of worms.

Short bikes with a load (or pulling a trailer) can have other handling issues. They tend to be skittish. The same qualities that make them fun to ride...quick steering, fast acceleration, responsiveness, etc...are magnified when loaded. Not in a good way either.

Carbon components are light and relatively strong but most of them haven't been designed with the loads that touring puts on them in mind. The fork that my Las Cruces has on it may be strong but it's not designed to take a rack (I wouldn't tour without fork mounts for a rack). Trying to clamp one onto the fork would be difficult because of the shape and would probably damage the fork and compromise its strength if I tried.

Rereading you original post, you may not want to go with a cross or touring bike anyway. Most of those are made with drop bars which could cause you back problems. There are many hybrid (flat bar) bikes out there that would probably be a better match.

The Cannondale Road Warrior (2008 models) was a T2 frame with a flat bar. Trek's 7.2 and 7.3 Fx bikes look very touring worthy. Component spec is a little low (heavier) but not too bad for the price. The Specialized Sirrus and Sirrus Sport would be worth a look too. None of them are particularly expensive and they might require a little tweeking but they are a good place to start looking.