As I understand it, the road was totally trashed early in the season and unpassable, and everyone had to wait for it to be repaired to the point of being usable.

I'd never been on it before, and although I understand it is rated as easy, I got the sense that it is deteriorating and suffering from lack of maintenance. If I hadn't been fleeing snow, I'd have taken a chainsaw to a bunch of trees on the way out to enhance maneuvering.