About Us

“We went out on the 4pm-8pm, 6.5- mile tour with a group of 11 people, launching near Bartlett Island and ending at Clark Cove. Our guide, Brad, was fantastic. He has an uncanny and super human ability to spot wildlife from a quarter mile away. We saw harbor seals, 5 bald eagles (including a fledgling!), porpoises, osprey, crabs, sea stars, and more. The equipment was good and the tour very safe. It was a one-way trip, where they drove us to the start and back from finish. They strategically planned the paddling direction to have the current and breeze at our backs, making for a really pleasant ride.”

I cannot say enough good things about our time with Maine State Sea Kayak. There were so many little details that were done right. For example, when we arrived, our shoes and cooler with our box lunches were already waiting for us in a bin. There was no waiting for someone to find our shoe size: everything was neatly organized and ready to go.

We spend a lot of time on outdoor adventures and our guide Travis was the best guide we’ve ever had. Seriously, he is that good! His training was outstanding, but what also stood out was his communication skills, the personal attention he gives to all of his clients, and his eye for safety. You can tell that his passion for the outdoors and sharing that passion with others is real.

Our trip was fun, adventurous, and very well organized. I give this company 12 stars and highly recommend them to anyone visiting this part of Maine. I know I will be back and I look forward to the next time I go kayaking with them.

“Great Trip to get out in Nature & see Wildlife”

We took a 2PM to 6PM trip for our family of 4 in 2 tandem kayaks. We had been kayaking once before in sit on top kayaks so we had no experience with these tandem sit in Sea Kayaks. The kayaks were very stable & easy to paddle during our trip & our guide was great & very helpful throughout the trip. Kayak trip was on the west side of MDI in very quiet area – very little boat traffic. We saw a bald eagle & the guide collected starfish to show us. We were hoping to maybe see a seal or two but then about halfway through our trip we came up on a colony of at least 50-75 seals on rock. Our guide safely got us near them without disturbing them or getting too close. We bundled our kayaks together in a raft formation & quietly drifted by them. The seals were amazing to observe & hear as there were growling, barking, jumping water , etc. This was highlight of our trip to Acadia.

From the moment I arrived at Maine State Sea Kayak in Southwest Harbor, I felt welcomed and special. I had the morning tour with Registered Maine Sea Kayak guide, Corky Potter. He personally welcomed me, Joel at the desk welcomed me, and so did Brad. The office was clean, neat, and had bio’s of the guides on the wall, clean bathroom, and my gear was issued to me. When I watched my 11 other participants arrive, they were given the same personal service. If someone need a dry bag for clothing or snacks, they were given one. If they needed a change of footwear, it was there. All the gear was clean.

At the appointed time we met with our guide Corky for an introduction of the tour, his expectations of us, our expectations of him, a visual tour of the birds and wildlife we could encounter, a short paddle lesson where we could focus on his words and demonstrations on how to get into the sea kayaks, how to get out, how to work as a tandem pair, how to use our paddles, and so much more. Then off with our gear into the 15 passenger van for our trip to the water.

I’ve paddled all over Maine. I found the Clarks Cove launch to be small and unique. I’m glad that we went over what we did before our arrival. We had newbie’s to the sport and I think that they got to process what was said without the complications of getting right on the water. Once on the water we were immediately blessed with a sighting of a mature bald eagle fishing and then flying up and sitting on the top of a spruce tree.

Our paddle went fast enough for everyone but slow enough that we could take short rafting breaks to watch the wildlife. We were treated to being surrounded by a curious group of harbor seals, seeing double crested cormorants, herring gulls, many belted kingfishers, two osprey, a turkey vulture, a sandpiper, chickadees, american crows, possibly a ringbilled gull, common loons including one singing to us and blissfully calm water. The sun came out and warmed us up.

Guide Corky shared all kinds of information about the land and islands we saw and passed, the geology of the region, wildlife tidbits about the different birds, and how to pee using LNT principals. The 6.3 mile paddle was over faster than we realized.

Would I do it again? OH yes. In fact, I would do some quiet side hiking in the morning and then take an afternoon or sunset paddle to top off an incredible day! Go to the quiet side of the island and take in nature at its best. Go with Registered Maine Guide Corky if you can!