I only pop in this community from time to time because I'm not really a cyclist

If you ride a bicycle, you're a cyclist. Anyways, you're already welcome to post here if you don't ride own or even ride a bicycle at all.

Have any of you done hardcore bike packing routes?

Bikepacking is still on my todo-list, but not a hardcore route. I'd rather drive to another European capitol city or over the alps or something.
There was a lady a while ago that did long bikepacking trips and made great blogs about it.

Maybe an idea for Jamie to blog about his trip 😉