A kayak guide, an archipelago, and a different way to see Maine.

Mar 26

Osprey’s Echo launched in the summer of 2021, operating out of a sheltered cove near Stonington that feels naturally suited for small, guided trips. The setting does a lot of quiet work upfront. Calm water, a gradual entry, and wildlife often visible before anyone even gets in a boat. “We’re always within an echo’s distance of an osprey,” owner Will Steinharter says, explaining the name. “Pretty much every tour sees or hears one.”

Steinharter had already spent years guiding before starting the business, but Osprey’s Echo was built with a different intention. The idea wasn’t to move people through the water, but to slow them down within it. “I wasn’t interested in rentals,” he says. “I wanted to create something guided, personal, and rooted in our location.” That distinction shapes everything from group size to how each trip is run.

Tours are typically small, routes are flexible, and there is no fixed script. “I don’t have set paths,” Steinharter says. “Guiding is about meeting people where they are and responding to the conditions.” Some groups move quietly along the shoreline. Others push farther out toward the islands. Weather shifts, wildlife appears, conversations unfold. Each element plays a role in where the day goes.

From the protection of the cove, paddlers often venture into the surrounding islands, part of the densest archipelago on the Maine coast. The landscape opens up quickly. Spruce-lined shores, working lobster boats, and stretches of water that feel unexpectedly remote given how close they are to town. Guides layer in context as they go, touching on local history, ecology, and the rhythms of the working waterfront, without ever pulling focus from the experience itself.

There is also a deliberate effort to make the logistics feel seamless. Gear is included, the pace at the outset is steady and unrushed, and there’s time built in for people to get comfortable before heading out. For families in particular, that flexibility matters. Private tours allow for shorter routes, slower pacing, and the kind of attention that’s harder to maintain in larger groups.

The company has grown steadily, now working with a small team of guides and welcoming more than a thousand paddlers this season alone. In the early years, it was often just Steinharter leading every tour himself. Today, even with more people involved, the approach hasn’t changed. “We try to make every trip feel like it was designed just for the people on it,” he says.

By the end of a tour, what tends to stay with people isn’t just the route they took, but the way it felt to move through it. A quiet cove, the sound of an osprey overhead, and a stretch of coastline that reveals itself gradually, rather than all at once.

Famous for:
Kayak tours through a 70-island coastal archipelago

35 Big Pond Rd in Stonington, ME / ospreysecho.com