11/17/18 Smithbrook/Snowy Creek Recon

No expert at this area, I decided to leave the skis and just check things out this afternoon. Took the Subaru and ran into icy snow in the road at 3,900' by the first trailhead. Super crowded with everyone trying to do something...Kept driving towards the pass but chickened out, not wanting to get high centered by myself. My truck would have been fine...Hiked the road over Rainy Pass and down to the Snowy Creek road. By then the snow was more shallow, and then went completely away. I hiked another couple of miles until I got a nice view of all the north facing alpine of Nason Ridge. I later figured out that the rocky face on the left was 7,000 Mount Howard, and on the right was Rock Mountain. I had been told that Rock skied well last Tuesday, but today it looked like an accident site with steep, hard, and shallow snow. Perhaps the south facing other side might soften up in the late afternoon? Low probability for me...
I'll hike up some foothills tomorrow....Now.....if I had driven from Lake Wenatchee, I think I'd have gotten all the way in driving...Be safe.