Not exactly the kind of hiking you're talking about, but I have been part of several environmental surveys for gas pipelines that are going to be put in. At all cost, these lines try to avoid human contact areas, which leads us to walk in areas that I wonder how many humans have really seen some of the things I have seen.
An example of this is
my post showing pics from my time spent in Kentucky last winter.
I'm sure it's not safe for someone like you to just go exploring on someones land, but in my experience, this is when you see some of the coolest things.