This is a cautionary tale for other new hunters.
My cousin went out on a deer hunt today and couldn't go to the area we had scouted out yesterday. His vehicle couldn't make the route with change of weather conditions.
We drive back down the road and come to a pull-out to sit and think.
Two guys pull up in a truck, obviously fellow hunters due to timing of day and outfit. We shoot the breeze for a bit, describing our plight with the weather. Well these guys were cheerful and told us that in fact a nearby gate will lead to decent walking country, in fact they have quadded it in the past and it wasn't a bad way to go.
We grab our our gear and head out through afore mentioned gate. After about ten minutes we notice that we are actually in a cultivated field with cattle and there is no way out the other side. So we hoofed it back out before an irritated (rightly so) landowner found us. Upon later inspection of land ownership, turns out we walked through the one gate that lead onto private land.
I don't know rightly what the intentions of the two experienced hunters we saw were, maybe pulling our leg, maybe honestly didn't know it was private (or didn't care)- but from here on out I am not walking through any land until I know ownership designation and not take other people on their word.