Rainbow Lake is the source of Rainbow Stream in Rainbow township in the

North Maine Woods The North Maine Woods is the northern geographic area of the state of Maine in the United States. The thinly populated region is overseen by a combination of private individual and private industrial owners and state government agencies, and is di ...

. Rainbow Stream discharges over a dam at the west end of the lake and flows south to Nahmakanta Lake. Nahmakanta Lake overflows through Nahmakanta Stream and

Pemadumcook Chain of Lakes The Pemadumcook Chain of Lakes are a set of large lakes in north-central Maine in the United States. Name Thoreau's ''Pamadumcook'' or Joseph Chadwick's ''Bennedumcook'' is rendered by the United States Geographical Board in an 1897 decision as " ...

to the

Penobscot River The Penobscot River (Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 22, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Maine. Including the river's We ...

. The

Appalachian Trail The Appalachian Trail (also called the A.T.), is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.Gailey, Chris (2006)"Appalachian Tr ...

follows Rainbow Stream and the south shore of the lake; but the old logging road to the dam has deteriorated with boggy areas no longer passable by

four-wheel drive Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...

vehicles. The lake has a small catchment basin and is surrounded by large granite boulders. The low nutrient input in this setting produces unusually clear water. The lake has a native population of

brook trout The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae. It is native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada, but has been introduced elsewhere ...

Sources

{{authority control Lakes of Piscataquis County, Maine North Maine Woods Penobscot River Lakes of Maine