Yep, I reached the same conclusion when I was living over there. When I moved out to the east side of the state in '88, I found I had a whole slew of opportunities that just weren't available along the I-5 corridor.

I used to live in Puyallup and work in Issaquah. Imagine my daily commute!!! No way you can bug out over there, unless like you say you have an alternate mode of transport. The only alternative I could come up with was to go to ground, deep, and hope you don't hit the water table too quick.

When I was growing up, there was darn near nothing between our back yard and Mt. Rainer. We'd be out for days in the summer, just cruising the forest without ever seeing anyone unless maybe we crossed a road. You couldn't do that now, urban (and suburban) sprawl has taken over out there. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />