I sympathize with your dilemma.  When I got back into tripping about 10 years ago I still had the same mind set I had when I was younger, namely to cover miles.  That was, in some ways, the point.  But now I travel with my wife and she made it clear early on that she was definitely not into busting her butt.  It took me a few years to come around to her way thinking and I'm glad I did.  We take long trips together, usually 3 weeks or more.  We don't base camp but neither do we  travel that far.  Our trip coming up next week for, example, will be 24 days on the water and we won't go much more than 100 - 110 kilometres, maybe 60, 70 miles.  That gives us the opportunity to travel, see wildlife, experience different lakes and campsites, which we love but at the same time to have plenty of layovers (generally a layover day for every travel day) so that she can read, nap and relax and I can fish to my heart's content (sometimes my wife will come with me to be my trolling motor.)  The trick, I think, is finding the right partner, someone who can commit to trips of reasonable length and who is in it for the same reasons you are - to take the time to relax, slow down, and connect to this astounding natural world that we have entered into.