I didn't do a planned route, but I traveled around for awhile cross-country with just a backpack, feet and thumb. I spent lots of nights on golf courses, parks, patches of woods, farm fields, and down railroad tracks. They seem to be the quickest way to get away from traveled roads. I was rousted a few times and strongly encouraged to get on a bus and get far away. I imagine it would be far worse now. I learned a low tarp shelter was by far the best for stealth purpose. The high points maybe being a snow cave and a sand cave when I made it to the Pacific. When I look back on the memories, a malaise of endless hours of treading pavement invades and diminishes the highlights. If I had it to do over , I would have tried to do the AT, something I had planned extensively to do, and chose not to; because I wanted to see as much of the country as I could. Besides the problematic camping issues, you will also spend a great deal of time alone, but surrounded by civilization. It gets depressing. The long distance trails on the other hand, provide a a different type of alone-ness that stems more from the nature of wilderness, than isolation from fellow humans. Meeting someone on the trail or in the very social AT shelters, you tend to have very friendly interactions out of mutual goals and experience. On the road, it's the vagaries of chance meeting and dealing with those who are suspicious of someone walking in a very automobile driven society. Homeless? Criminal? What are they running from? In my mind, it's more rewarding to experience a stretch of wilderness than deal with the problems associated with paved roads and private lands.