A small group of paddlers in 4 solo canoes and 1 kayak met at 10:00 a.m. in the Pitt Springs Park on Friday, April 20 to paddle the Ecofina. We drove to the livery north of Highway 20 on Strickland Road immediately west of Pitt Springs Park, and paid a $5.00 fee to use their put-in. We did our own shuttle down to SR 388 and left one car in the livery parking lot.

While there is a free canoe launch directly across from Pitt Springs, we chose to start a little further upstream so we could stop at Williford Spring.(visit this website for a full description: http://www.tfn.net/Springs/Williford.htm) There is a day use area that can be rented from the Water Management Agency, but it is closed at the present time for restoration work, so this was one way for us to visit this spring. It is a delightful spring, but since the weather was still a little cool, no one chose to swim. We made our way to Pitt Springs and stopped for lunch, sitting in the shade at a picnic table.

After lunch we paddled around in the Gainer Springs group, Emerald Springs, and up a spring run directly across from Emerald Springs. There is a beaver dam to the left on another spring outflow, the second one we had seen because there was another one near the livery.

After these sidetrips, we paddled for about three more hours to the bridge at SR 388. It is an easy paddle with a moving current, and no pull-overs. The Mountain Laurel was in full bloom along the creek banks, and the birding enthusiasts were excited to report sighting a Swallow-tailed Kite. This was my first time to paddle the Ecofina, and the crystal, clear water, and beautiful foliage which is along mostly undeveloped creek banks puts it high on my list of wonderful places to paddle. I would recommend that people who can paddle on a week-day do so, because I suspect that there are a lot of paddlers on summer week-ends.

Since it was close to Earth Day, we picked up cans and trash, and were delighted to note that when the livery came to pick up 10 people in their 5 rented canoes, that everyone hauled out their beer cans and garbage due to directions by the livery. The livery offered to dispose of the garbage we had collected and thanked us for helping clean up the creek. That was really impressive!

Frances Stone

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