Theodore M.
which made for a long day. At least for me, 4,500 to 5,000 feet is a long
climb.
I made a few climbs and was getting relaxed, when one day near the end of the
trip-it was a two-week trip-1 slipped on the way down from a peak. I was off
of the climb, off of the snow and rock and steep part of the climb, walking
down the trail, but I slipped and almost fell, twisting my knee and, in
recovering, twisting my back. The next morning I was practically a cripple, 16
miles from the road. There were two doctors on the trip. They put on hot
compresses and gave me some pain killers, and after I rested for a few days I
could walk with some difficulty. The doctors had a big debate. One doctor
thought I ought to get a horse to ride the 16 miles down the trail, and the other
doctor said it was the worst thing you can do if your back is bad.
I had to make the decision and I compromised. I rented a horse but I started
walking early in the morning so I could get across the streams before the snow
started to melt. And I got down off the really steep part of the trail, which
would have been brutal riding on a horse, and I walked about 12 miles before
the pack train caught up to me with the horse that I had engaged. So I rode the
last four miles. Then I rode down to Banff in the back seat of a Chevrolet
Monte Carlo coupe all crammed up with luggage. When I got to Banff, I could
hardly walk, and when I got home after sitting on an airplane, which is never
good for a tall person, I was really a cripple. I was making phone calls to get
work lined up and rarely ever got through on the first try and I didn't have a
secretary and Dick wanted to talk to me again.
So that's how I came to work at the National Academy of Sciences. Dick made
me an appointment to meet with John Coleman, who was executive officer of
the National Research Council at that time. John Coleman had tried to hire me
for doing the academy's study for President Kennedy back in 1961, but I
couldn't go over there because I had been away from the Library for so long
working on the Senate Select Committee staff. I had been on some other
academy committees so John knew me, and for him it was just a question of
when could I start work. I was barely able to hobble around, but I started work
about the middle of August. And then it turned out that in addition to running
the water quality study, I had to be the executive secretary of the
Environmental Studies Board for Dick to find enough money to pay my salary.
So I ended up with a lot of other administrative responsibilities for things I
didn't know much about.
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