Anyone that can figure a big buck out in this stuff and be 100% acurate is pulling someones leg. I live hunting in the open hardwoods after a light rain. Deer appear to travel into them then as it is quite and offers them a chance to lay down and dry off a bit. Also be very alert in them during a cold morning as it is loud walking and you can here the deer traveling a quite of distance away. But on the same side they can here you to.

I would be watching those trails during most of the hunt as the big bucks up here like to travel near them. They will almost always send the doe first at any hint of danger coming there way. If you see a buck going ahead of a doe you know that they are aware of you being there. That means the buck is heading out of there. Bucks do like traveling the ridges up here and most likely the same thing there. But there is an exception and that would be those big swamp bucks. The ones with a dark gray chest that only move up into the hardwoods for building mast to get by during and after the rut. They will normally take the shortest route in and out of the swamp. Good luck to you.