I have three needs and wonder if I can get by with one solution.

I want to road tour to a camping area (by bicycle) and then mountain bike around. In fact, I might want to bike on the trail with my gear and back-country camp.

AND we have a new baby coming into the family soon.

I am wondering if a child cargo carrier will do the trick for all, or do I really need panniers for the back-country camping and touring.

What do you guys suggest?

Are you wanting to haul the new baby, camp, ride the back country or what?

Yup, all of the above. Sometimes I want to haul a baby. Other times I want to tour. I have seen guys road tour with baby cargo carriers, so I think that a baby cargo carrier would work for touring. I wonder how it will hold up on off-road trails (not really hairy terraine).

You can do the first 2 with a MTB with a BOB trailers. Probably not going to be too happy on singletrack trying to carry your camping gear in a baby carrier, but i'm not sure. You would probably want to look at the specs for baby carriers, and see if any are appropriate for off road use. Maybe check out the weight limits - my camping gear usually maxes out in the 40 pound range.

You could get 2 trailers, one for the kid and one for the gear.

One thing I wouldn't do, no matter WHAT is put my BABY in a carrier that wasn't rated for BABIES. (duh, and I know you didn't suggest that, but I'm just stating the obvious.)