ISLAND ADVENTURE

Morag Prosser has witnessed several life-changing moments during her world travels that few people can claim.

Standing several feet from a group of lowland gorillas in Uganda while being sized up by the dominate silverback seven years ago was one.

Although that would be tough to top by most standards, Prosser says her latest adventure was on a par with that breathtaking moment.

Accompanied by nearly a dozen others and some local tour guides, Prosser, a Scotland native and Coeur d’Alene resident, traveled last October to the scattered collection of tropical terrain 600 miles west of Ecuador that makes up the Galapagos Islands. There, she encountered nature in an up-close-and- personal way privy to few travelers.

Though more than 120,000 tourists visit the islands every year, this Galapagos trip was markedly different.

Each 12-person group is allowed unparalleled access by sea kayaking along generally unfamiliar routes between the islands, hiking in the rugged and varied terrain and camping on the many sandy, untamed beaches where sea lions, exotic birds and iguanas are the only neighbors for miles.

“It’s like nothing else you’ll ever experience,” said the 42-year-old Prosser, an adventure consultant with River Odysseys West in Coeur d’Alene, which also is the founding company behind the trip. “You just can’t spend enough time taking pictures. The wildlife experiences are just incredible.”

It took 12 years to make the Galapagos sea kayaking adventure happen, and outdoor enthusiasts from one corner of North Idaho played a founding role in it.

The brainchild behind the journey was Peter Grubb, who started River Odysseys West with wife, Betsy Bowen, 28 years ago.

“We run a lot of different trips. All of the places we visit we have a personal connection,” Grubb, 49, said about their travel selections. “We put together an itinerary that highlights some of the more unique features a destination has.”

The Galapagos adventure started to take shape in 1991 when Grubb’s North Idaho outdoor adventure group began offering river rafting through the international division of River Odysseys West in the wilds of Ecuador with the help of local guides from a few Ecuadorean companies.

While in the South American country, Grubb and a few others visited the string of islands off Ecuador’s west coast. Observing the tropical archipelago from a yacht “the way 99 percent of people go to the Galapagos,” Grubb recalled thinking: “This place would be perfect for sea kayaking.”

The idea was batted around between the Coeur d’Alene outdoor enthusiast and Ecuadorean river guide and business partner Juan Rodriguez, but years passed and progress was slow. With 97 percent of the Galapagos landmass protected by the National Park Service, access is restricted and regulated. At one point, Grubb said, he almost had given up on the idea.

Meanwhile, it was business as usual at River Odysseys West: sea kayaking trips off the coasts of Turkey, Alaska and South America and white-water rafting in Ecuador, to name a few of its far-reaching destinations.

Then, late in 2005, with permits in hand, consent to camp and an itinerary in place, the roughly $4,000 to $5,000 per person sea kayaking adventure came together.

The inaugural expedition was made in January 2006. Since then, with hosting and booking help from Sea Kayak Adventures Inc. in Coeur d’Alene, more than 20 Galapagos adventures have been completed.

“It’s a unique and exciting product,” said Nancy Mertz, co-owner of Sea Kayak Adventures, which offers specialty kayaking trips and whale-watching excursions. “No other outfitter can camp in the Galapagos. It just can’t be done.”

And what does the trip get you?

“It’s an alternative way to see the Galapagos that’s a little less orchestrated,” said Grubb.

The allure of the islands, the North Idaho outdoor enthusiast said, is found in the unique and remote wilds.

While most tourists are ferried around the islands in a comfortable, work-free setting on yachts and cruise ships on a predetermined course with few options for personal approaches, the one-week, eight-mile-long kayak trek offered by the North Idaho companies takes sightseers along the coasts, onto the beaches and beyond.

They visit five of the six main islands, camping four nights and staying in hotels three nights.

In paddling between islands at a leisurely pace, sightseers are offered a more intimate experience within the distinct ecosystem.

In addition to snorkeling with a multihued mixture of undersea creatures, biking on terrain that varies from arid desert to abundant jungle and hiking 15 miles on Island Isabella to an active volcano – where magma remnants from a 2005 eruption still were hot enough to melt the rubber pads off a cameraman’s gear on a recent trip – the Galapagos’ creature collection is sure to inspire.

“We do a lot of snorkeling. And sometimes, if you are lucky, you can see dolphins or whales,” Grubb said.

And if you are “unlucky,” there still are giant land tortoises, striking birds, marine iguanas, playful sea lions …

“It’s like being in the water with a puppy,” Prosser said about her time with the mischievous sea lions. “Because nothing’s been hunted, nothing is afraid of you.”

Mertz, who went on the Galapagos trip a few months ago with people ranging from 35 to 71 years old, also praised her island adventure.

“It was phenomenal – everything you can imagine,” she said. “The Galapagos had been a lifelong dream of mine, and I am 52 now.”