Time for a 20-Mile Hike....with Baby Kelty Tour Framed Baby Carrier

I love camping, and I love hiking. Most of my daily walks are taken out in the middle of BLM land (which is pretty much a whole lot of rocky nothing). These facts weren't about to change when I had a baby, so my mother took it upon herself to make sure I was not restricted to stroller-friendly ground.

My mother and sister came for a visit when my son was just barely three months old and of course had to buy something for the new baby. My mom dragged us all over town to various specialty stores, outfitters, and discount stores. Finally, we came to an outdoor sports store and she told me it'd only take a second, I needn't come in. She emerged from the store carrying a nice frame backpack.

I closer scrutiny revealed that this was not just any backpack. It had the traditional frame of a hiking backpack, but instead of a large pouch and sleeping bag rack it had a seat at the top and an open space for dangling baby legs.

A frame backpack is designed to spread the weight of its burden over a person's entire back, as opposed to a traditional backpack which lets its entire weight rest on the shoulders. This backpack is built much the same with a lightweight aluminum frame, thickly padded shoulder straps, and another wide strap to go around the waist. The baby seat sports a well-padded four-point harness and leg holes so a child's legs can dangle down into the space directly over the back. When set down the frame springs apart automatically to create a free-standing seat, when the straps tighten when it is lifted this brings the bottom part of the frame back together. Ok, now to try it with baby...

This backpack is designed to be used with children up to 40 pounds, use can begin when the child has good control over his/her head.

I didn't get a chance to use this until my son was about six months old and nearly twenty pounds. I fitted the straps to myself then took the backpack off to put him in, he strapped into the seat easily after a couple of minor adjustments for his size. Alrighty, we're all ready to go! Except...getting the backpack with baby in it onto my back.

There are very sturdy handles at the top of the pack to aid in lifting the pack to its place on my back, but in the awkward position and with muscles not worked in a while I just couldn't quite get it twisted around. After several tries and almost tipping the kid over, I nearly gave up.

Now, the instructions on the thing say to never set the backpack with baby on a table, couch, or any other such raised surfaces because of the danger of falling. Let me tell you, if you're by yourself trying to get this on and have a pretty good-sized baby, forget it. So, I set the pack up on the couch and, being careful to keep a hand on it so it wouldn't tip, turned around and slipped my arms easily into the shoulder straps. Gee, I hate struggling with something that turns out to be so simple. Off we go!

The purpose for using the backpack on this particular outing was because I had to take my largest dog across town; she's a Walker Coonhound/Pitbull cross and weighs pretty near 100 pounds, and gets very worried inside vehicles. The last thing I wanted was a very worried dog hopping around baby's car seat, so it called for a walk. At the time the dog was about two years old and hadn't yet learned all the niceties of walking within the bounds of her leash and her sudden jerks and swerves just did not work very well with the stroller. The backpack left both my hands free to deal with her while keeping baby well out of the way of the leash.

We set off walking, having nearly a mile round-trip to go. At first the backpack worked very pleasantly and I barely felt it. Near the end of the walk I discovered the bottom bar of the frame was just a little bit low on me and was causing some strain and soreness on my lower back. I'm sure there must be a way to adjust this since everyone is a different size, I haven't been able to figure it out. So by the end of the walk my back was a bit sore but otherwise, considering I'd just carried a somewhat large baby for a mile it worked pretty well.

Baby absolutely loved this new view of the world. He got to ride higher than mommy's head and had a full view of the world around him, as opposed to the straight-ahead view he got from the stroller.

Getting the laden pack off proved to be much easier than putting it on, I was able to slip it off my back and set it gently on the ground behind me.

There is a canopy cover that goes with this backpack that shields the baby from wind and rain when used. At the time my mom bought me the pack they were out of the covers and I didn't get one until a couple months later. I have yet to use this cover outside, but it attaches easily to the top of the backpack and is supposed to protect baby from wind, sun, and rain. It does, of course, limit baby's view of his surroundings, but not too much as it does have "sun shade" type mesh windows in front and on the sides. Every time we go camping I've brought along this canopy in case I need it, but so far it's been nice and sunny on all our mountain walks, but not too sunny since it's in the trees.

My mom bought this backpack from an outfitting store for $150 and an additional $20 for the canopy. I do not know if discount stores ever sell these items, I'm sure it'll be cheaper if they do. All in all I'd say this is the most useful baby item I've ever received with the exception of baby's car seat. I can take it anywhere (works well for shopping, even) and once one gets the hang of putting it on it's easy. Definitely well worth the price paid.