I've done searches in some of them (MD, WV, PA, VA) and "not that far" can be pretty far on foot - if you can walk; truly, most GA airplanes are very difficult to spot in forests, 'cause they don't look much like airplanes after the impact(s). In heavier forests, real common in the east, there often isn't much damage to the trees where the airplane initially hits. I remember it took a while, most of a day, to find a guy who went into the trees along the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, and he was relatively unhurt, yelling on the radio if I recall correctly, and the ELT actually worked (121.5, or 406, they often don't work). He was literally in the trees, quite a way up, airplane mostly intact.
And it took cell phone analysis, radar reconstruction, and a week of searching to find a 172 that was a few hundred yards from a state road in MD, and in sight of a town lower down a slope. It was Spring, with great weather for the entire time. If it had been winter, snowing or snow on the ground, walking out to the road would have been tough, down a steep slope, semi-wide stream intervening. And he was in the DC/baltimore Mode C veil most the flight.
Just like out west, most civilization (roads, towns) are down low, along the rivers and/or valleys and passes. Don't mean to preach, but I've read that "dense" civilization thing a few times, about back east; it's true to the point that the population density, and towns, are more numerous, but no one is gonna pay much attention to a low flying airplane that isn't in obvious distress (on fire, spinning down minus a wing, etc.).
One not-atypical event I was involved in - flying across the Eastern Shore, MD and Delaware - I got an ELT signal, and DF'ed it, found the airplane in a field (a lot of the Eastern Shore is farmland), about 200 yards from a house. No one in sight. I called it in, went about my business, followed up later: it was a engine failure, the pilot did a good enough forced landing, kept all his fingers and toes. He walked out, but didn't see the house, and the folks in the house hadn't seen him. The ground wasn't as level as it looked from the air. If he'd broken a leg, injured his back, whatever, he might have sat there for a long time.
Anyway, rant nearly complete - just making the point that your airplane is small, hard to see even if it's intact, and just because you can see "civilization", it doesn't mean "civilization" will notice you.
