Thanks for your post, Liquid Sunshine, and welcome to this forum!

Have you seen the article, "Hiking with Children" by Penny S. on the home page of this site? Your post is a useful addition to that information.

My personal experience with toddlers in backpack carriers is that the little ones are more apt to pull the parent's hair than stroke it! At least with my grandkids, one of the parents did the carrying instead of me.

As the toddlers get older, they'll want to walk more and more, which actually slows you down for a while, but that's OK. Keep the trips short and let the kid explore his environment. I found that it can be really exciting exploring the wilds from a toddler's point of view--ants and beetles and slugs suddenly become lots more interesting than larger wildlife.