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I figured if I walked off of the side of the road, in the grass, it might not be as punishing as actually being on the pavement. How do y'all think that would be?

I suggest you take a bus or hitchhike or whatever.

To see how it would be, find a close-by stretch of highway, put on a pack about the size/weight you expect you would have, and walk a few miles.

Then take advantage of the satellite view setting of Google maps to have a look at random places along your proposed route to see how that looks to compare to what you just walked. You won't be able to see the slope that was already referenced, but you'll have an idea.

The problem with "off road" is that highway builders don't think in terms of making that at all useful for walking, so it will likely be rough and inconsistent to walk on, and sometimes just non-existent in effect.

But really --- if you're keen on this idea, spend a weekend afternoon sometime and do some highway walking and *try* to think about how you would feel after a week or more of that.

One GOOD thing about highway walking is that it's easy to do a lot of miles per day. Walking the rough completely-off-tarmac side of the road negates a good chunk of that, however.

Sorry to be such a downer! Not so much trying to discourage you as make sure you're aware of the downsides before setting off. I've done a fair bit of highway walking, but in bits and pieces, never more than a couple of days continuous. The amount of traffic makes a huge difference to how much I (dis)like it. I would not contemplate walking entirely off the prepared highway surface, except for specific conditions you occasionally find where it really is pretty smooth grass or packed earth or the like.

Note also that when doing extensive highway walking, I'll look at stored maps on my phone to periodically find a longer detour route that takes me on quiet roads for a while, just to get away from the $%^#! traffic and give my head a rest from it.