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Links to pages on website:
Spoutn
Spring in Frederick
Maryland
Disclaimer & Cautions
| Some
Springs The springs featured on this website are listed
below, with
links to their respective pages on this site:
Please see the sections below as well, which
include: - Why
Have I Created This Website?
- The
Most Reliable Springs
-
Is
Wild Spring Water Safe to Drink?
- Care
of the Area Around Springs
-
A
Few Tests Regarding Claims of Healing Water
- Are There Any Hot Springs or Warm Springs in
the Eastern Part of the USA?
- Facts and Myths About Wild Springs
- Glossary
of Some Common Terms, Notes
- Professional
Photos of the Flora and Fauna Catoctin Mountains
Why Have I Created This Website?
For all of my life, I have been fascinated
by springs in
general,
and particularly: - hot springs and warm springs
- healing springs
- other kinds of exotic springs, such as
springs
from extremely deep water sources which are claimed to supply primordial
water or primal water
I
am extremely fortunate
to currently live in a remote area in the Frederick Watershed, near
Frederick,
Maryland, just a few hundred yards from the roadside
spring known as Spoutn Spring, and, indeed, there are
actually several
other roadside springs along the same road as well, although none are
as reliable
and consistent (e.g., consistent year-round flow), convenient or
accessible
as Spoutn Spring. Incidentally, there are over a hundred
springs
in this remote mountainous area within less than one mile of the spring
(and within one mile of my home), but most are not near roads
and
not easily accessible. In any case, I pass the local spring on a daily
basis while I am on my walks, and I often encounter folks from far and
wide who have parked in the small parking area (about large enough for
three vehicles) across the road from the spring -- these people are
invariably
at the spring filling numerous water jugs, buckets and other
containers. While some of these folks are local old-timers who
grew up in the area,
many have driven anywhere from 45 minutes to over an hour from
Rockville,
Bethesda, DC, or northern Virginia specifically to come to the spring
and
fill numerous jugs, buckets and carboys with water. Indeed, a
large
majority of these folks who have driven from afar are of Asian origin,
mostly Chinese-Americans. Many of these "outsiders" ask me
many questions
about the spring. So, here are my reasons, or at least most of
them, for creating this website:
- I love springs and have always been
fascinated
by them
- A number of the folks of Asian ancestry from
the
DC/VA area whom I encounter at nearby Spoutn Spring have asked me lots
of questions about that particular spring and about other local
springs,
and about safety of the water.
- I hope to be able to offer folks at least a
modicum
of information about some local well-known springs
- And, why is this website named Fun
Springs?
Aside from Funsprings being an available domain
name which made
sense, I created this website because it was fun to do, and I hope you
have
fun reading the fun spring website!
The
Most Reliable Springs
A highly reliable spring is one
that provides relatively safe potable water in sufficient quantities to
be usable, and which flows year-round, even during the driest
seasons.
If a spring flows during even dry seasons and during droughts, then we
know that the water comes from a relatively deep and stable,
high-capacity aquifer;
such an aquifer contains rainfall water which has percolated through
multiple
layers of soil, rock, gravel and sand to reach the aquifer
or "water table". However, like most such wild springs which
emerge
out of hillsides and mountainsides, at least some small percentage of
the
water in the spring appears to be surface runoff water which has not
yet
been fully filtered by the action of multiple layers of soil, rock,
gravel
and sand. This is sometimes referred to as "artesian water" or "surface
water" or "shallow surface water", although all these terms are rather
imprecise. Is
Wild Spring Water Safe for
Humans to Drink?
Well, for drinking purposes, a constant
danger with any wild source of water, whether it be as spring, a creek,
a pond, lake or river, is the possibility of any of the following:
- toxins from human
activity, such as
toxic waste, waste from septic tanks, runoff from agricultural
operations,
or runoff from nearby road surfaces
-
harmful or undesirable bacteria or viruses,
from either human or animal waste or activity
-
parasites such as giardia or the amoeba
which causes amebic dysentery
Each
wild source of water encountered,
in this case, wild springs, must be evaluated regarding each of these
possibilities.
Obviously, if a spring has been in use for a long time by locals with
no
ill effects and folks seem to keep returning to it again and again,
this
may offer some evidence of relative safety. By the commonly-accepted
standards
of most local health departments, the water from many wild undeveloped
springs may not be totally safe to drink, because many wild springs
have
been found to contain an excessively high level of fecal coliform
bacteria. These bacteria are not usually harmful in
themselves, but rather, their
presence in amounts over a certain threshold level is often taken by
public
health authorities to indicate that at least some of the water in the
spring
may be from shallow surface runoff water, aka surface water, which has
not yet been well-filtered by multiple layers of soil, deep sand and
rock,
and thus may still contain appreciable amounts of fecal material from
local
wild animals, including mice, rabbits, raccoons, skunks, snakes,
turtles
and birds. And, according to the reasoning of these health authorities,
there could therefore be harmful microbes, or harmful one-celled
organisms
such as those which cause amebic dysentery or giardia, or even
so-called
intestinal parasites, present in such traces of fecal matter as well,
and
such organisms could end up on the water, and these could prove harmful
to some people, at least to people with known vulnerabilities, such as
the very young, the very old, or those with immune
deficiencies. My own view is that
ultimately, it
is up to each individual person to weigh the risks personally and to
decide
for themselves whether or not to drink the water from any particular
wild
spring. And, speaking as one who has trained for much of my lifetime as
both a scientist and a mystic, I personally place far more reliance
upon
what I will call my "gut sense" or "belly wisdom" than on any abstract
scientific reasoning or warnings. However, let me warn you: I
tend
to run my entire life not from my intellect or mind, but rather based
on
the promptings from Spirit, via my Heart and Belly. You, the
reader,
must make your own choices - it is not for me or anyone else to try to
do that for you! So, I encourage you to find your own answers
for
yourself! If in doubt, at least ask locals.
Care
of the Area Around Springs
If you are a someone who uses a
wild spring, please respect the spring and the land on which it is
located. Please be careful to treat the property with care,
and not to litter or
to leave behind old containers or other debris. Also, and it
should
not be necessary to have to say this, but I have witnessed acts by
spring
visitors which prove otherwise: do not flush the spring pool or stream
with any kinds of chemicals, disinfectants or bleach, and do not
attempt
to wash or rinse your buckets or other containers at the spring site
using
soaps, chemical disinfectants or bleaches. These substances end up
contaminating
the stream or pond which drain the spring, killing plants, fish, water
animals and insects, and destroying the ecosystem.
A Few
Tests Regarding Claims
of Healing Water
It is now fairly well-known that
the water from some (by no means all....) famous healing springs around
the world -- including Tlacote in Mexico, Nordenau in Germany, and
Lourdes
in France -- and also the water from some famed sources of "healing"
water
such as the glacially-fed streams in the Hunzas, happens to exhibit
certain
antioxidative properties which may be measured by the presence of a
very
low Oxidation-Reduction Potential (aka ORP) and a low Relative Hydrogen
score (aka RH score or RH2 score; this is an inverse logarithmic score,
so a lower reading indicates greater levels of hydrogen), both of which
indicate Rather than take up time and space on this
page to
explain more about these ORP and RH scores and their relationship to
the
presence of very low molecular weight antioxidants, I suggest that if
you
wish to learn more about this topic, please see my off-site informational
webpage on RH score, ORP and related measures.
In any case,
some scientists have theorized that the healing powers of those
afore-mentioned
well-known healing springs may be wholly or at least partly due to the
extremely unique ORP and RH scores in the strongly antioxidative range
exhibited by the water. In other words, they have suggested that some
or
all of the healing powers of those springs may be due to the presence
of
certain very low molecular weight hydrogen-based antioxidants in the
water,
which can enter the body even through the skin. Of course, it
is
also true that the waters from some other famous healing springs does
not
exhibit these notable and measurable antioxidative
properties. Since
I am an antioxidant researcher (among other things), whenever I find a
new spring, if it seems promising, I do tend to measure the ORP and pH
of the water and compute the RH score, out of curiosity.
Are There Any Hot Springs or Warm Springs
in the Eastern Part of the USA?
Hot springs and warm
springs happen to be among
my favorite kinds of springs, and, since I live on the East Coast, it
is
an unfortunate fact that most hot springs are found in Western states,
and
only a very few on the East Coast. The local, older geology
on the
East Coast simply does not tend to support such things, unlike the
younger
geology of many areas in the West, the Rockies and Far Mid-West in the
USA, where there are over 1,200 known hot springs. These
Western
hot springs are ubiquitous due to the presence in that region of pools
of molten magma which lie relatively close to the surface and are able
to heat water in nearby aquifers, thus producing hot springs. In
contrast,
the East Coast and much of the East and Midwest (except for a few spots
which produce a handful of hot springs in the Ozarks in Arkansas and
three
hot springs in the Black Hills of South Dakota) lie on much older
geological
formations, and any pools of molten magma are buried far below the
surface
of the earth, and thus relatively unavailable to heat the water in most
aquifers. However, there are a few known hot springs in the East, about
46 of them, but none of them would likely qualify as true "hot"
springs,
due to their relatively "warm" temperatures, and, rather are likely
better
described as "warm springs". Facts and Myths About Wild Springs
Near-fact: Relative Safety
of Water Can Be Sometimes Judged by Steadiness of Flow Over Seasons
A general rule of thumb is that
it is always safest to drink water from a spring which flows
year-round,
even during the driest seasons and during droughts, in other words,
water
which comes from a relatively low point in a deep and stable
aquifer.
With such a spring, there is some degree of assurance that most of the
water from the spring is not simply shallow surface runoff water, which
would not yet have had a chance to be adequately filtered and cleansed
by layers of soil, clay, sand, rock and beneficial microbes. So, in
general,
assuming that the area where the spring exits the ground is relatively
clean, a spring which flows steadily year-round should be safer and of
a higher quality than the water from seasonal springs or springs which
show a wide variation in flow rate from season to season (e.g., high
flow
during rainy springtime, low flow during drier seasons.)
Myth: Crawfish
as Indicators of Spring Quality
I have met old-timers who believe fervently that the presence of
crawfish
(aka crayfish or crawdads) in the water just below the spring is an
indicator
that the water from the spring is safe to drink. This is likely not
true
in most cases. Water in which crawfish survive could still contain
various
things which might harm humans if ingested. Half-Myth:
Presence of Crawfish Means that the Spring Flows Year-Round
Some old-timers believe that the that the presence of crawfish (aka
crayfish or crawdads) in the water just below the spring is an
indicator
that the spring flows year-round, as it is said that crawfish will not
stay in a spring where the flow occasionally goes dry. Not
necessarily
true, but there does seem to be some correlation. However, crawfish can
briefly exit water and migrate to other streams, etc., and crawfish can
also migrate great distance upstream and downstream, so this is not a
good
rule of thumb. Probable Myth:
Crawfish, if Present, Maintain Spring Flow Year-Round
On a somewhat funnier note, I was told in all earnestness by an 80-year
old friend who grew up in the country that the presence of crawfish in
the spring waters or the stream below a spring is a sure indicator that
the spring flows year around, even in dry seasons and droughts,
because,
he told me, crawfish act as the maintenance personnel for the spring
and
the innards of the mountain. He advised me (and I paraphrase
slightly,
due to imperfect memory) that: "...if
the crawfish notice that the spring water flow is slowing
down, they crawl back up into the spring, into its innards underground,
deep in the mountain, and they tinker around in there and adjust the
rocks
and water and stuff to make sure the spring keeps flowing
alright....."
He advised me that this is common knowledge in mountainous country
where springs are often found. I love this theory and the
imagery
it evokes, and the idea of crawfish as all-powerful mystical and
mechanical
caretakers of the underground mechanisms of springs, but I suspect --
unfortunately -- that this beautiful story may not be literally
true! Darn! The statistician, logician and scientist
in me scream
loudly
that this myth commits the fallacy or error of confusing correlation
with
causation (e.g., "since crawfish seem to be present in most year-round
flowing springs, the crawfish must cause that steady flow to happen..."
or "sales of umbrellas cause thunderstorms".) In the popular
vernacular,
this type of mistake is often labeled as "guilt by
association". And while this type of confounding is called
"confusing correlation
with
causation" (one Latin name for this is non causa pro causa)
in the
sciences and within some areas of philosophy, in the more ancient field
of formal logic (considered to be a field within Philosophy),
such
an error of thought is sometimes referenced as post hoc ergo
propter
hoc (translates as "after this, therefore because of
this"). Much as the English translation implies, this fallacious reasoning is
seen
to occur when people assume that if event A seems to usually happen
before
event B, then event A must cause event B. For example, sales of staple
grocery items such as milk, bread and bottled water are known to
drastically
increase prior to severe winter snowstorms (because people want to have
adequate stocks in case of impaired travel conditions.) If
someone
observed this fact repeatedly, and then claimed that the increased
sales
of milk, bread and bottled water causes severe winter storms, they
would
be then committing the post hoc ergo propter hoc
fallacy in
their reasoning. Glossary
of Some Common Terms, Notes Primordial
water
and primal water
-- Well, there
are several slightly variant definitions for these terms.
Let's start
first with the definition which is commonly accepted in the mainstream
sciences, such as geology, geophysics and oceanography, where
primordial
water is believed to be "original" water, dating to the origin of
Earth,
which has only recently come -- for the first time in it's history --
to
the earth's surface, almost always via geothermal vents (e.g., hot
springs,
geysers, fumaroles and black smokers; the latter is an underwater
geyser
on the ocean floor). Such water is believed to have been stored in
underground
magma for much of the history of the planet. Please note that
most
versions of the mainstream scientific view would maintain that the
primary
means of emergence for such primordial water will usually be geothermal
vents of some type, rather than "ordinary" cold springs, although this
model does not full exclude cold springs as a mode of emergence for
primordial
water. A
very similar, if not identical, basic definition
also seems to be employed in various circles among dowsers, mystics,
energy
healers and "spring gnomes" or "water gnomes" (people who spend much of
their life studying, enjoying and/or care-taking springs), where lore
has
it that water from some land-based (cold) springs is such primordial
water
as well -- water dating to the earliest days of earth and which has
never
before been exposed to the atmosphere nor to the light of
day. However,
such mystically-inclined folks usually go a bit further than the
commonly-accepted
scientific definition, and further specify that such waters often
contain
powerful energies or imprints of "subtle energies" from the earliest
days
of earth, or as one such person described it to me "...This
is water
bearing the imprint of God's earliest intention for Earth, unsullied by
interference from humans and pollution, etc...". Further,
some folks
in these same mystical circles employ a slightly looser definition for
primordial water, and simply use the term to indicate any water which
comes
from relatively (geologically) ancient sources and which is older than
roughly one million years (some use a cutoff of 100,000 years instead)
-- meaning that it the water has never been exposed to the atmosphere
nor
seen the light of day for at least one million (or 100,000, for the
even
looser criterion) years. Such waters are called primordial
water
and/or primal water by such persons.
Obviously, such waters
re almost universally believed -- by those who assert their existence
--to
flow from incredibly deep and protected sources. Lastly, some
mystics
and dowsers claim that there exist on Earth in every era seven (7)
sources
of truly ancient (original) primordial water or primal
water in
drinkable (cold) form, -- usually in the form of
(cold) springs
on one of the continents -- and that at any moment, only one or two or
three of the seven are active and accessible to humans.
Indeed, once
or twice each year, the personal physician to the Dalai Lama makes a
trek
to a remote region of Canada to visit and collect water from a reputed
primordial spring along the Nippissing Ridge on the Canadian Shield
which
is maintained and care-taken by a friend of mine (please do
not even
ask me for further information on this spring, nor the
caretaker; I
am not allowed to reveal anything further and will not even respond to
such inquiries). Aquifer
--
an aquifer is an underground strata (layer) of water-bearing permeable
rock, gravel or sand, or, more rarely, clay. If the strata
consists
of rock, the rock is usually limestone, sandstone or fractured granite
or basalt. An aquifer acts as an underground reservoir for
water,
and, since it is permeable, can also transport water. The
level of
water in an aquifer is called the water table. The
high
water table level is that level of water reached in
an aquifer
during periods of high rainfall. The low
water table
of an aquifer is that minimum level of water which is maintained even
during
a severe and prolonged drought. Obviously, a well or a spring
which
taps into an aquifer at a level just below that of top the high water
table,
but well above the low water table level, will tend to go dry during
dry
seasons and periods of drought. Conversely, a well or spring
which
taps into an aquifer at a level well below the low water table level
will
tend to flow continuously even during dry seasons and prolonged or
sever
droughts, and tend to continue to produce continuous and reliable
amounts
of water even during such periods. Professional
Photos of Flora and Fauna in the
Surrounding Catoctin Mountains
I live in a wilderness
area in Maryland called the Catoctin Mountains,
my region of which is also known as the Frederick Watershed, and the
first
and primary spring which I have featured on this site is a
local healing spring named Spoutn Spring. If you
are interested
in seeing some photos of the landscape, animals and plants from the
Catoctin
mountains immediately surrounding the spring, you may wish to check out
some professional photographs taken by Bob Cammarata, a wildlife
photographer
based in Baltimore who spends much of his time shooting photographs in
these mountains -- Bob is also a frequent visitor to Spoutn
Spring! To see some of his photos of the local area in
his online photo gallery, please click here.
A
Solicitation and Note At this time, this site
is quite small, although its purpose is to feature
interesting wild springs and healing springs from around North
America.
If you know of other interesting wild springs such as:
- healing springs or
mystical springs
-
high quality wild springs
- springs
which are reputedly fed from extremely deep
water sources which are claimed to supply primordial
water or primal water
in North America in which you
think other folks might be interested,
please
feel free to drop me a line at
-- I will be happy to incorporate such information.
A Brief Note from the Page Author/Website Owner
This page is offered as a public service only, as
an
informational and educational webpage. I have nothing to sell
to
you, and there is nothing I am trying to get you to believe, and
rather,
this page (or set of pages) is simply offered out of love and
appreciation
for the many gifts of God/Being/Source with which we are blessed on
this
planet. All information offered is simply reported to the
best of
my ability, and my reportage, opinions and preferences as stated in
this
page remain my own. If you choose to drink or use water from
this
spring or from other wild springs, you do so only at your own risk and
you take sole responsibility for your choices and your actions. I take
no responsibility for any outcomes you or others may encounter from
drinking
or using water from this spring or other wild springs, nor from streams
or creeks, etc. If you have any questions or concerns about
the safety
of, or use of, water from any wild source (spring, stream, creek, lake,
etc.) please consult with your licensed healthcare
professional.
I hope you enjoy this page! Have fun!
To learn more about the author, please
click here to go to the Vinny Pinto Central Directory website.
Donations
and Support for this Website
This freely-offered educational website has been totally
self-supported by the author, Vinny Pinto, since its inception (and
many of my websites were started between August 2000 and June 2003).
While I offer the content on this website freely, as a gift to all from
my heart, it is quite obvious that not only did my research in these
realms (and also my training, including formal education, that allowed
me to offer this material in the first place) incur costs, but there
are also monthly and yearly costs associated with web hosting, domain
registration, etc. As you have likely noticed, I have chosen not to
accept any advertising on any of my websites. As a result of all of
these factors, any funds that you might choose to donate toward
supporting my research work and this site will be very much
appreciated.
Thus, I am seeking donations to help me to support
this site -- even two dollars helps! If you wish to donate, you may do
so by using your credit card, ATM card, debit card, or transfer from
your bank account, via fully secure means. To make a
donation, please go to the Donations
and Support page ! All
transactions are secure; in all cases, you get to choose the donation
amount!
Thank you very
much! Vinny
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