The High Pass Thorin and company had once taken was actually safe, since it was being kept open by the Beornings (said Gimli). The problem was that this way was too far north, and the Fellowship would have drawn too near to Mirkwood, Dol Guldur and mainly the Gladden Fields, which were apparently still being searched, at least more or less closely (the orc patrol that shoots arrows at the Fellowship on the Anduin came from that region, presumably).
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