I know who Hibbel is, and I have seen the picture of the bushwhack in the Darian Gap: standing thigh deep in water with a machete. I respect his guts, but what the heck? The Darian Gap "ride" is like that old saying about bringing a knife to a gunfight. For Pete's sake, if you can't avoid the area entirely, get a dang boat. If the guy had swum across the Atlantic dragging a bike, it would have been amazing, but not really a signal cycling or sailing achievement.
His rack just has all the hallmarks of some guy who was savaged by broken racks. The reaction in such cases is not always an engineering marvel, and anyway time marches on, and new solutions appear. "Engineering" is a little like divorce: the first wife is too hot, the second is too cold, and by the third, you get it just right. Or maybe that is porridge...