If you're into the outdoors and hiking and climbing, I guarantee you're living in the wrong corner of the country, or at least the wrong half. I've been to the Northeast and I agree there's good wilderness there but nothing like the views and mountaineering available here and in the Sierra. Oregon is not so good for mountaineering at least in terms of the amount of rocky terrain but it too is beautiful. Some of my favorite country is North-Central Oregon east of the Cascades.
The Border Patrol is probably looking for illegal immigrants and terrorists too.
The lady wilderness ranger I met at the Spanish Creek cabin said the patrol keeps a sharp eye out for marijuana smugglers now that the more populated regions farther west between Vancouver and Bellingham have been so successfully defended/patrolled. You may have heard this story: tunnel under the border.