Either way, your quote regarding wanting to stay on the west side of the Misty Mountains as long as possible certainly suffices as an explanation.
Certainly the route through Red Horn was considered safer than the route through the High Pass.
H.C.
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"Stir not the bitterness in the cup that I mixed myself. Have I not tasted it now many nights upon my tongue, foreboding that worse yet lay in the dregs."
-Denethor
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