I haven't hunted in years, and I want to get back into it. When I did hunt, it was basically road hunting with people who I thought were actual hunters. I was mistaken. Needless to say, I learned very little about hunting.

As a newbie hunter, I'm beginning my scouting for this season now. I'm doing my best to avoid the farm fields and private land the majority of the people in my region of northern Alberta tend to hunt. I want to get off the beaten path and put some miles on my boots. Right now, I'm using a combination of Backroads Mapbooks and Google Earth to narrow down areas to start actively scouting.

My question is when looking at terrain and satellite images, what features do you look for when it comes to deer habitat? Valleys, rivers, clear cuts, cut lines, meadows?