A Better Funnel?

The old style plastic funnel

I have long used a small plastic funnel to capture a trickle of water for treating in the outdoors with my water purifier when backpacking. Many of the outside above ground water sources are small trickles, where water follows its path of least resistance while being drawn downhill by gravity. Perhaps you have some experience with this on your backpacking trips and like me, seek a better way.

The new style of silicon collapsible funnel

While shopping for kitchen supplies I came across a set of various sized and inexpensive collapsible funnels, made of silicone. While not new to the world, they were new to me and inspired an idea for their use beyond the kitchen. I believe they can be easily held, bent and folded for improved fit around natures endless variety of contours of rock and earth in a way to better capture those elusive trickles of necessary water. I like the way they fold or collapse to better fit inside my backpack and the fact they won't melt by heat or be bent useless under the weight of backpack items. They also come in bright and fluorescent colors so they will not easily be left behind.

I will use one of these lightweight and flexible funnels this summer during my backpacking trips and tell you how well, or even if it works, as an improved capture method for drinking water for purification. If any of you already have real world outdoor experience capturing drinking water with a silicon collapsible funnel like this, please comment to let me know how well it works for you.