Dare I mention bikepacking? Written off by many here as right on and trendy, but there are a lot of folk using full sus and hardtails to explore rugged off road tracks. No need for racks when you can strap a multitude of soft bikepacking bags to various parts of the bike and go off-road touring.
In fairness, I did mention it above 😊
I'm genuinely in awe of the likes of yourself and your adventures, less perhaps of where you can go, more the level of discomfort you're willing to tolerate
I have to admit to a certain frugality, too. A decent back packing baggage set up is not cheap, needs to be complemented with lightweight (read expensive) gear and really isn't a lot of use for doing the shopping
It's easy to get distracted by "labels", especially online, but in the real world it's barely relevant. A majority of people I meet on the road who are the happiest, are the ones on the "least suitable" bikes
- according to the internet.
At the end of the day, what's between the ears or beating in the chest is far more important than the bike under the ass.