Having taken the long trek from Duskwood up to Goldshire, I ventured beyond the Eastvale Logging Camp and into the Redridge Mountains. Here, I met a similar fate as in Duskwood-- death by spiders.
Despite WOW's promises of a big open environment to explore, I find the gameplay to be very structured. Different areas are tailored for different levels, which works on a few levels-- when your character can finally survive against common enemies in a new area, you feel a nice sense of accomplishment, but it makes the game feel very limited to a newer player like myself (Level 10 Priest).
A good friend of mine advised me to take a train from the Dwarven section of Stormwind up to Ironforge, where there are more quests for my Level. I'll give this a shot tomorrow, but it would be nice if the game would give you a shove in the "right" direction now and again-- I might be too spoiled since I was raised on JRPGs.