The Best Camping Hammock - and a Giveaway!!!

We always bring lots of toys and sports equipment with us when we go camping from soccer balls to hockey sticks,  butterfly nets and  bikes.   Add a giant bucket of sand toys and vats of bubble mix, and our kids are generally well entertained.  Last summer we also added a hammock to the growing collection of items we would try to fit into our truck.  Little did we know, it would turn out to be the best camping investment ever and that the gaggle of kids we always camped with would spend hours in it each weekend!  Far more popular than the playground, outliving every other toy, and still there at the end of the day when the kids had tired from riding their bikes, the hammock was always  filled with at least 2-6 children.




While we loved the hammock, there were a few things we didn't love so much about it though.  First of all, hanging it required us to draw from our climbing experience as we tied intricate knots in hopes of keeping the hammock in the air and not resting on the ground.  Second, no matter how we tied it or how many ropes we used, the kids were always sitting with their bums on the ground within minutes of bouncing around in the hammock.  It slipped, it slid, and it would not stay UP in the air.  By the end of summer we had engineered a system of sorts to keep it from stretching and sagging but it definitely wasn't an easy process and I knew there had to be a simpler way to hang a hammock!

The other main flaw with last season's department store hammock came as a result of the material.  It often rains at night and by morning the hammock was frequently soaked.  It would then take the cotton fabric hours (or an entire day) to dry.  This was highly unsatisfactory when the kids wanted to use the hammock in the morning but it was too wet to sit in.  Surely there had to be a hammock that wasn't made of cotton and had quick drying properties.

Our New ENO Hammock

Introducing Eagles Nest Outfitters Hammocks 

 

The opportunity to upgrade our hammock to a quick drying nylon hammock presented itself this summer and I jumped on it!  We recently acquired an ENO Double Nest Hammock and have discovered that not all hammocks are created equal!  With a 400lb weight allowance, we can fit a whole gang of kids in the hammock or even share quiet time together as a couple in this hammock that would definitely accommodate both my husband's and my weight.  (If the kids would ever let us use it)

Quiet Time in the ENO Hammock

Our new ENO hammock is also going to be great in the backcountry!  Weighing in at 20ozs, it's light enough to pack with us on all of our future backpacking trips.  And if it rains, it won't matter because the quick drying nylon fabric will dry in no time at all.

Definitely the best thing about our ENO hammock though is the suspension system that eliminates the long set up time, removes all knots from the equation, and simplifies hanging the hammock to the point where even I can put it up, and I couldn't tie a knot if my life depended on it.

The Atlas Suspension System

Our hammock came with the Atlas Suspension system which features Polyfilament Webbing weighing in at 11ozs.  The webbing wraps around both trees on either side of the hammock, and then attaches to the aluminum carabiners on either end of the hammock.  The webbing features several loops so that you can raise or lower the hammock as much as you want simply by using a loop closer to or further from your trees.  To see an instruction video on how to hang an ENO hammock, visit the previous link to the company website.

Aluminum carabiners and Polyfilament webbing

Finally, the ENO hammock comes with its own compression stuff sack so that you can easily bundle it up for both car camping and backcountry trips.

Everything about the hammock cries out "quality" from the heavy duty triple stitched seems to the fact that the hammock actually has carabiners attached to it instead of simple fabric loops.

The kids love the hammock and we adults love it too because we can hang it once and leave it at that.  It doesn't stretch and slide down the tree within five minutes of hanging it, bums aren't touching the ground, and we know it's not going to rip or fall apart when our rambunctious children jump in.

Happy Campers in the ENO Hammock

Win Your Own ENO Single Nest Hammock

ENO has generously offered to give away one Single Nest Hammock to a lucky reader so that you can see for yourself how awesome these hammocks are.  While this contest is open to all Canadian and American citizens, free shipping only applies to those in the United States.  Canadians will have to pay a small fee of approximately $15 COD when the hammock arrives at your house.  Alternately, you could choose to have the hammock shipped to friends in the US and arrange for your own delivery. 

Loving the Hammock!

To enter the contest please leave a comment below telling me why you would like to win an ENO hammock and where you'd use it this summer.  Please leave your first name and an email address where you can be reached if you win.  If you aren't comfortable leaving your email address, please send it to me directly using the information on the contact me page of this blog.  You can also email me to enter the contest if you find you are unable to leave a comment.

All entries will be entered into a spreadsheet and a name will be drawn using an automatic number generator.  The winning name will be announced on Monday morning July 15th with the contest closing at midnight mountain standard time on Sunday July 14th. 

The ENO Double Nest Hammock

The Contest has now wrapped up and a winner from Calgary was notified.