Just throwing in my 2 cents. My recommendation would be either a Ford Bronco or F150 with an I6, 4.9L, 300 ci. engine in it. Its the only engine I can gurantee will give you the MGP's you want when empty and still be enough for towing what you need when you need to. Its not a racer obviously, but the engine is the closest thing to indestructible I've ever seen. That's nothing to sneeze at in a DD or a trail vehicle. You may be hard pressed to find one in a Bronco or full cab F-150, but if you're willing to do the work, you can drop one in.
I drove a 91' F-150 for years as the family farm truck and it never gave me any problems except for changing out the water pump once, and that only took me a few hours of work and cost around $20 in parts. I was regularly getting 20 mpg highway when I wasn't carrying or towing anything. Just the toolbox with emergency tools in the back. It was only 2 WD, but I only ever got stuck once, and that was because some ************ decided it would be funny to pour water around my rear tires with sub-freezing temps. If you have your sights on a 4WD, try searching for a bronco though. It seats 4 max, has 4WD, later models have plenty of comfort, and plenty of room to add more comforts, parts are cheap easy to source for the most part, and they're built like a tank.
Now my 91' bronco, which I drive now, with a 302 usually gets around 17 or 18 mpg highway, but on city streets is a bit of a guzzler at 10 mpg. But the push-button 4WD is nice in winter with ice patches everywhere. The only mod you might have to do is upgrade from auto-hubs to manual, but it rare to find autobubs that are still on any bronco these days. And as I mentioned before, the later and EB models have plenty of comforts, and I'm certain a mechanic like you can add more if you so desire. Heck, I installed a TV in mine a few months ago with a CD/VD player and it wasn't a problem to get it all wired up. Basically, the bronco was built for camping in mind so you shouldn't have any troubles taking a stock model up light camping trails.
Other than that, I'd say any third generation Toyota 4runner or Tacoma. I owned a 2000 4runner 5spd. and was amazed at it's strength and offroad ability right out the box. coilover suspension, 4.10 gears, E-locker, and the 3.4 V-6 had plenty of power even with 265/75/16 cooper STTs. Although the 1st to 2nd gear change is less than impressive!