This reminds me of something I saw on a backpacking blog sometime last year. Project Remote, a family that's finding and hiking to all the "most remote" place in each state of the USA. Here's some of the statistics:

https://web.archive.org/web/20240621094642/https://www.proje...

The most surprising one to me is: Least Remote: Kansas (0.8 miles from a road).

As someone who lives in the very densely populated greater Boston area, Kansas doesn't exactly strike me as a prime candidate for not being able to get away from roads.

Their website seems to have been commandeered by some Indonesian online casino scam thing in late 2024 and is now offline. I'm unsure of the ongoing state of the project.

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quickthrowman 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Kansas is mostly a gigantic farm and there’s farm roads every mile or so. Laying out roads along section (square mile, 640 acres) or quarter section (160 acre) boundaries is probably how Kansas developed its road network. 36 sections make up a township, 6 sections by 6 sections. Most (?) land between California and the Mississippi River is surveyed like this, probably excluding Texas since that was a country and originally held by Spain/Mexico.

The Wikipedia article for section (survey) has an aerial photo of Kansas in it, naturally: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_(United_States_land_su...

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sebmellen 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm extremely surprised that Wyoming is more remote than Alaska! I wouldn't think Alaska has that many back-country roads running through it.

Edit: they have another page describing Alaska. It seems that the linked page might only describe the contiguous US? But also, wow. This seems stupid:

> Thoughts of roadless Alaska came to mind and our amazing, wild trek through the Brooks Range of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We hired a bush plane to drop us off in a nameless valley. At 50 miles from the nearest village or road, we were awed with excitement and healthy fear. We agreed to meet up 9 days and 35 miles later at a flat spot where he could land on the tundra marked by a heap of moose antlers. He looked at us awfully cock-eyed when we told him we had no satellite phone. He asked, “well, why not?” We told him that we were deliberately here to remove ourselves from civilization and contact with it. Watching our pilot fly away, we realized we were as far from towns and roads, and therefore, humans as we could possibly imagine.

	▲	Uncle_Brumpus 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I've done some pretty stupid things in my day relating to various activities far* from civilization (my dumbest being an offroad motorcycle trip by myself for which I was not nearly experienced enough, dumped the bike several times, crossed a bridge that definitely wasn't designed to hold a motorcycle, etc.), but I both applaud and receive second-hand anxiety from their massive commitment. *technically not remote at all in this context as they all took place on trails
	▲	staplers 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I've been to this area and being close to a road does not mean human contact. I drove on that road for nine hours and saw a handful of people/buildings. "Towns" on a map might literally be a single home up there. It's as remote as can be even alongside utility roads.

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pkul 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Well Kansas has the benefit of being utterly flat and also quite homogenous biome wise. Even though it has no people I' assuming without looking at it that the entire state has been chopped up into square mile sized squares.

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dylan604 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Yeah, if "road" is satisfied with tractor path that leads back to a road, that sub-mile distance doesn't seem hard to believe

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boc an hour ago | parent [-]

Kansas genuinely has a ton of paved and gravel roads all across the state. It's like a gigantic grid. Oddly high amount of street-view coverage too on google maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/EyBFj9BNQa8nhUcE6

The Kansas landscape is very underrated. Just infinite sky in all directions.

	▲	doodlebugging 42 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I agree about that landscape. The state is not as flat as people think it is either. Very scenic. I worked the southwest corner of the state years ago and always loved topping a local high spot. We were surveying and out there we could set a flag a half mile away and sight off of that easily with plane table and alidade or theodolite. The atmospheric distortion would get you on a humid day or if you were shooting across a wheat field with all the transpiration but otherwise it was clear with minimal shimmer.