Level 48 in Azshara

I did a couple of small quests in Azshara to get my level 48, but now I am working on my Mining. My leveling has gone so quickly that I have found myself in areas where all the mining nodes are way above me.
I was unable to mine anything above Silver this morning, but I made a trip to Thousand Needles and I was able to pick up quite a bit of Tin and Copper, as well as a few Silver. The Tin and Silver mining got a me a few levels, and I was then able to mine Iron.
My circuit for Thousand Needles is a sort of long figure 8, where I go along the north edge of the map, then back along the south edge, and then back along the road. After that, I do the reverse. Sometimes I will go into the caves, but only if my tracking indicates that there is something that will possibly get me a level.
As there is not much Iron in Thousand Needles I decided to go to Arathi. There is lots of Iron there, especially on the west edge of the map. By making a few circuits around the edge of the entire map I was able to get myself to 168 before taking a break. By the end of the day I will be able to mine Mithril, which is my goal for now. This will at least mean that I can mine a few nodes while I am questing.
Plus, I have an extra 200 gold or so worth of bars, gems and stone in the Auction House...not bad for a morning's work!