Reader Mark wrote in with a gear question that I don’t really have enough experience to answer:

I have an 11 month old daughter, and we’re at the stage where she’s outgrown the Baby Bjorn that I carry her in when going hiking together.

I was wondering if you could recommend a child carrier. It seems that I get the same thing everywhere I go online to look at reviews for child carriers…some people love a certain child carrier and other people hate it. It makes it very difficult to feel confident about shelling out $150-$250 …

My wife suggested that I email “that guy who writes that hiking website that you’re always talking about.” So here I am contacting you. Any advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

So, I don’t have a kid, and haven’t done any hiking with kids, myself – but I’ve definitely seen a lot of parents getting their little ones into the wilderness with some well-designed backpacks … and I’m hoping a few of them read Modern Hiker and would be willing to help a fellow outdoorsy-dad out.

So if you’ve got any experience with kid-toting backpacks, please feel free to share!

The Kelty Kids FC 3.0, being used by Flickr memberKris247.

Tags: child carriers, gear, hiking with kids, kids backpacks