I just ran into this one, as well. I don't know if it has anything to do with it, since I haven't repeated this yet, but I was carrying the blue bubble for the teleporter, going into Region 3. (I see that's the same place Jamie ran into this?)
Also, I was almost able to get out of it, since I was able to lower the balance stick, but not raise it. Once it got so far down that the town wasn't visible anymore, the seed dropped down and I was able to resume using the stick as normal. The spring was sprung, though, so I couldn't progress up into the town...