Not sure if you are talking about trying your hand at the late season, or preparation for next year. So Ill try to answer to the best of my ability.

Late July early August start with a trail camera if you can swing one. Put it on trails etc. as far as streams go, its very easy to tell if they cross there. You will find ruts in the bank where deer go up them, or if there is no high bank, a quick look in the mud on the shore should give you your answer. Keep in mind when hunting an entire season that trails that deer use in the early season may be entirely different then the ones they use in rut or late season. In early season when food sources are plentiful, deer take a bed-to-feed or feed-to-bed mentality moving back and forth. However in the pre-rut/rut bucks will open up their travel areas and cruise sometimes miles. It is not uncommon to see a buck during prerut that you have never seen anywhere near your property before. The best way to start out hunting an area that you are not totally familiar with is look for places where the land forces deer to travel a certain way. They are called natural funnels. A place where the woods narrows down, fallen trees, rock walls etc. all can form natural funnels. These are my favorite to hunt. Another thing to consider is wind direction. On my property 75% of the time the wind comes out of the NW. So I try to stay out of the Northern part of my woods (but I do hang a stand or two up there in case the wind happens to come out of the SE) Doing your homework preseason is 80% of the battle, scout the fields with spotting scopes to see where they are entering food plots, and returning to the woods. One last little thing I do occasionally when hunting a new woods is look for old built treestands. The hunters from 10,20,30 years ago put those stands there for a reason and SOMETIMES they can tip you off to deer travel. Hope this helps.