We recently spent four days camped out at timberline up Hope Pass —about 11,800 feet in altitude — helping support the highest aid station for the Leadville Trail 100 ultramarathon. This remote checkpoint is situated about 43 miles into the LT100 course, and 57 miles on the return trip. Our main job was to filter water from a nearby lake and pack five-gallons jugs on burros up a short hill to the camp for the runners. The llama packing crew which had done this for decades retired last year, so a group of pack-burro racers stepped in. This seemed historically and…