Spring in the Inland Northwest, when many hikers are itching to get out on some snow-free trail, is a good time to look south. Places like Hells Canyon, the Wenaha River, the Rapid River, and other more difficult to access trails along the Salmon River can get a little more traffic between March and May when the weather warms up down in the canyons, but you can always find many miles of trails virtually deserted during their prime season.
Along the Wenaha River Trail
In 2013, I spent some time thinking about the best way to thru hike the 1,500 miles of the Inland Northwest Trail (INT) from end-to-end—a trip that would take the average hiker four or more months—and came to the same conclusion: head south first. Heading southwest out of Spokane on the Fish Lake Trail and then the Columbia Plateau Trail towards Pasco, WA sometime in late May to early June would make the most sense for a bunch of reasons.
Blue Mountain canyons
Thru-hiking the INT this direction would give the high ridges in the Blue Mountains and the Wenaha Tucannon Wilderness enough time to shed their snow before traversing east towards the Grande Ronde River and Hells Canyon. Starting a thru-hike of the entire INT route from Spokane south to east then north and finally west back to Spokane rather than the other direction would make for more mild early summer temps while hiking through the cactus and rattlesnake rich canyons of northeast Oregon and would also give the even higher elevation trails of Central Idaho and NW Montana’s Cabinet Mountains more time to melt off. The whole trail could easily be thru-hiked the other direction; it just seems that south-to-north would make for a more enjoyable hike.
Wenaha Tucannon Wilderness
Friends of the Inland Northwest Trail 
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