Near 100-degree temperatures accompanied by humidity might not excite many deer hunters, but this is one of the best times of the year for me.

As with a long canoe journey, preparing for the deer season requires a lot of planning unless you are satisfied with just going out to your deer lease, sitting in the same blind you’ve hunted in for years and taking your chances that a big buck will come along.

I don’t mind taking such chances, but I prefer to plan ahead.

While many are sitting at home complaining about the hot weather and wishing the fall seasons would arrive, the serious hunters take to the woods.

And, in doing so, they educate themselves with where the deer are moving. Deer can be creatures of habit, traveling the same routes to feed and bed, but they also can change those habits at the drop of a dime, especially when a human presence is felt.

Learning new trails, bedding areas and feeding grounds are top priorities to all serious hunters.

In the summer, deer are less sensitive to human encroachment, but, once the season begins, the sudden increase in unfamiliar vehicles and sounds the deer haven’t heard since last season, put them on the alert.

If you are not afraid to walk in the woods during the warm-weather months, when rattlesnakes and copperheads are more likely to be present, walking along fence lines, the upper ends of stock tanks, shaded draws, creek banks and road beds will tell you a lot more about when and where a big buck is traveling than visiting a deer feeder ever will.

Many hunters use the summer months to spruce up their hunting cabins and to repair hunting blinds that might have been damaged by high winds and other weather-related problems.

That’s what I call normal maintenance procedures to help insure more pleasant hunting experiences next fall.

However, I believe hunters should do more. After all, learning about the deer’s activities where they are roaming, how big their tracks are, and maybe even seeing a big buck in the months ahead of the season are just as fun as bagging that buck in November or December.

Even if you are confined to hunting a specific area due to lease rules or other reasons, making a careful examination of the entire area around your blind just might cause you to re-think how you hunt the area.

For instance, if you suddenly realize that the stock tank or depression not far from your hunting blind has been dry as a bone for years, but suddenly has water in it from this year’s late-spring and summer rains, it could be an observation that will pay off big this season.

Increasing one’s knowledge about where the deer are traveling now could open up some new and exciting hunting places and experiences this fall.