The Conti Gatorskin or the Gator Hardshell is not considered a touring tire, sure you can tour on any tire but is it the ideal tire? no, unless you're credit card touring and going from inn to inn, but it's not ideal for loaded touring. I have read here where people have, but like I said it is not classified as a touring tire, take that anyway you want.
Schwalbe does make the best touring tires in the business, and their newer Almotion is the top of the line touring tire from Schwalbe, followed by the Marathon Supreme, the Supreme is about 200 grams lighter than the Supreme, but the Supreme takes 2 more watts to pedal which is a non issue since you won't be going fast enough to have watts do anything for you. The puncture resistance is higher on the Almotion and that's why it weighs 200 grams more due to the anti puncture layer, the Marathon Greenguard has the best puncture resistance but it weighs about 100 grams more than the Almotion, but again that's why the Greenguard weighs more because it ayer of any tire on the market. Also the heavier the tire the longer it wears because the tread thickness also increases with weight. So if you the max wear you would want the Greenguard, I have about 1,200 miles on mine and there is no indication that they're wearing, they still look new with no cuts and of course no flats, and I heard of people averaging between 7,000 to 8,000 miles on a pair while loaded touring; while the Supreme averages between 5,000 and 6,000 miles; I haven't heard about the Almotion but as a guess I would say between the Greenguard and the Supreme.
Now if the weight of the Greenguard bothers you and lasting 8,000 mile you could don't care so much about, but you want a lighter tire with superior puncture resistance, you could do one or both of two things, you could put in Stans sealant, this stuff weighs roughly 19 to 23 grams, and or you could also install a Panaracer FlatAway kevlar liner, this liner weighs about 28 grams, and I tried to drive a thumb tack through it and all I did was bend the tack and never penetrated the kevlar, but I easily penetrated a Mr Tuffy with a tack, also I could cut the Mr tuffy like it was butter with a pair of scissors, but I was hurting my hand trying to cut the FlatAway. The disadvantage of the FlatAway is that it's a one tire use strip, and it cost $15 a pair.
Speaking of strange things you can do, since most of your weight is on the rear tire and thus most of the tire wear (and flats) will be on that tire, you could use a Greenguard (or an Almotion) for the rear, and a Supreme on the front in an effort to cut some weight while keeping the rear free of any hassles. Or any combination you want as long as the longer wearing tire is on the rear.
Another way to save weight is put a wider tire on the rear, this will make the tire last longer plus you can use less PSI which will give you smoother ride; but then in the front you could go with a narrower tire. I've done that and it works fine, I do carry a lighter weight spare then either of my main tires, and it's a bit narrower than the front and not as durable as the front, so if by some slim odd chance I blew the rear I would simply move the front to the rear and put the spare on the front till I find a suitable tire for the rear.