Local writer encounters ‘Backpack Bear’

Sandy Babuka visited a Choconut Valley third grade class last week to talk to them about her travels in Alaska’s Denali National Park and read to them from her children’s book, “Where is Backpack Bear?” about a real grizzly bear she encountered in her time serving as a tour guide in the park last year. PHOTO BY PAT FARNELLI

Sandy Babuka has a big love for wild, untamed nature. As a local environmentalist, she ran county recycling programs and led tours at Salt Springs State Park, but she always wished to return to the Alaskan wilderness she explored as a young mother in the 1970s.
Last week, she visited the Choconut Valley Elementary School, and showed third graders slides of her adventures over the past year in Denali National Park and Preserve, while reading from her picture book, “Where is Backpack Bear?”
The classes included the students of Babuka’s daughter, Michaela Steele, and of Lisa Bistocchi, where the students are learning about writing non-fiction, fact-based stories.
While Babuka drove a tour bus on a 90-mile long road into Denali, she frequently encountered grizzly bear, roaming freely throughout the park.
She was trained to ensure that no one left her bus with any food, not even a piece of a cracker sticking out of a mouth. She explained that it is extremely important that the bear never get a chance to taste human foods, because these will attract the bear and cause them to approach, interact, and even prey upon humans as a source of food.
In Denali National Park, animals never, ever get human food, Babuka said. It is one of the features that sets it apart from other parks.
One particular adolescent grizzly bear became a problem for the park staff because he was having difficulty finding food due to some injuries. She showed the class photos of some of the park’s native animals he would encounter, including an arctic squirrel, a moose calf, a gull, and an otter. “He might have wondered, ‘Should I eat it, or should I play with it?'”
Backpack Bear – as he became known – had a run-in with some hikers, who were startled by him and then turned and ran. Babuka explained that in an encounter with a grizzly, it is important to stand your ground and not turn your back or run away. One of the backpackers threw her backpack, containing candy bars and soda, at this bear. He then sought out backpacks as easy pickings.
Babuka showed the students photos of the three-year-old bear that had an injured front foot and mouth and was becoming more and more underweight, because he could not catch small animals or dig for roots. One photo was a closeup taken from the bus as Backpack Bear walked alongside.
She explained that winter could be eight months of extreme cold in Alaska, and that it was important for a bear to gain enough weight for hibernation. Backpack Bear was about 120 pounds underweight. “He should have been 250 pounds by August,” she said.
She said that throwing food toward the bear is not the right thing to do, and can cause a bear to develop problem behaviors, which Backpack Bear did. In another encounter, hikers lay down and pretended to be dead, another good strategy in a bear encounter, and Backpack Bear removed their backpacks and took them away. Backpack Bear’s actions caused the park road to be closed most of the time for five weeks.
The book had an open-ended conclusion. Babuka asked the children what they thought of the ending, and what they thought would have happened.
She took their suggestions to use in re-writing the book’s text, and recommended that the children edit and revise their own works in progress. She also talked about ways to cite references in a non-fiction book.
The students enjoyed a photo of Babuka, her husband, and Steele as a toddler with her then three-year-old sister in a canoe on a river in Alaska. Even the family dog and cat were visible in the canoe.
Babuka will present a two-part slide lecture Part One will be held on Sunday, Feb. 26 at 2 p.m. at the Wheaton House at Salt Strings Park. Her talk will include the mountains, bear and moose encounters, the Native American Athabaskan Culture, and the mountainous landscape and rivers.
Part Two of the presentation will be on Sunday, Mar. 5 at 2 p.m., and will be on the topic of environmental impacts of climate change at Denali