Volunteer Group: CORE

Date: 5/13/25

Location: Colorado, San Isabel National Forest - Salida District

Volunteer Hours: 300

Donated Equipment Used: Chainsaws, Hand Tools, 4×4 Vehicles, Mini-Excavator

Estimated Project Volunteer Value: $12,000

Tincup Pass is a high-elevation road in the Central Colorado Rockies that crosses the Continental Divide at over 12,000’. It was originally built to connect the mining town of St. Elmo and Tincup. In late 2024, a mud pit began to form along a section of Tincup Pass Road. By early 2025, this mud pit was large enough to swallow a full-size vehicle and had rendered that pass nearly unusable for most vehicles and machines.

The repair challenge for locations such as Tincup Pass is the remoteness and ruggedness of the access and conditions. This makes traditional repairs extremely expensive and time-consuming. This is where the value of volunteer groups and USFS partners is felt in full force. CORE worked with the USFS engineering department to develop a solution that would use on-site native materials and take a page from history.

Corduroy roads have been used in mountainous environments for over 100 years in wet, marshy, and muddy conditions. The corduroy technique involves laying logs perpendicular to the roadbed to build a sort of ‘bridge’ across wet ground. This technique was originally used to construct the Alaskan Highway, and modern repairs have unearthed corduroy that was still intact.

CORE volunteers dropped and sectioned several beetle-kill trees in the immediate vicinity and staged them next to the road using vehicles and slings. They then brought in a mini-excavator to the site for the dirt work and to place the logs. This implementation has held up really well, and the group plans to use corduroy in more areas in the future.

Tincup Pass Road Rebuild