This frosty streamside scene lays between the the frozen fresh-water Damariscotta Lake and the brackish half-frozen tidal basin of Great Salt Bay, then into the Damariscotta River that runs twelve miles down the the open ocean. This is Middle Stream which is a wild, rocky stream that roars and falls quickly from the lake down to the base of a rustic stone fish ladder, first built in 1812. This is where the small alewife fish return each spring to fight their way upstream, into the fish ladder and up into Damariscotta Lake. Middle stream runs untamed, roaring and tumbling with wild abandon while all other calm waters nearby lay frozen and still under winter ice. This stream splashes its way noisily to the sea, leaving overhanging branches coated with ice to mark its passing.
