I believe the road was 2 miles long. There's a lot of private property up there, and I imagine that's why they gate it off. The road probably helped us gain 2500 feet.
I've never seen Fender that tired before, EVER.
We could have climbed to our camp spot about 3 times faster and arrived before dark, but my friend Riley was having terrible shin splints, and he wasn't as prepared as the rest of us. In hindsight, I shouldn't have invited him on this trip without a test hike first. Oh well, live and learn.