Good post, as just yesterday I had lunch with one of my hunting buddies and discussed my findings of early season scouting, and he too asked "why so early"...

Being self-employed and father of a 2 year old son doesn't give me a whole lotta time for perfect conditions.
Also I try to stock pile my "away" time for hunting season, so the wifey doesn't keep telling me she is a "hunting widow".
So as everyone can imagine, I head out when I get the time.

This past Sunday was 52 degrees (not too warm) in the AM and NH had just got a lot of rain, so I believe it was a decent time for scouting, in my eyes.
After realizing I was going to be tick and mosquito bait, I checked out 3 "new" areas that connect to my other hunting areas for my early bow hunting
(Sept15th-1st week of Oct.).
Our discussion was based on trying to piece together the puzzle of "connecting" land parcels in bedroom community hunting. Basically my premise was due to last year's finding of a big buck in one of my areas and he was photographed almost 3 miles apart as the crow's fly. So my goal is to try and figure out how he is getting from parcel-to-parcel.

I had pulled my topo and aerial photo to get the lay of the land (as VirginaShadow mentioned). I had also previously set points on my GPS of roads etc., helping set-up my boundaries for these areas. I then walked into these areas and started looking for white oaks and other types of possible feed, making mental notes along the way and continuing to mark key features on my GPS. I also looked for swampy, streams or other muddy areas for tracks and also dropping etc.
So now, when I go back in a month or so, I can pin-point an area to scout more thoroughly and hang a stand or "cut-in" for my climber.
These new spots proved to be good, as I stalked towards a nice Doe from 125 yards to within 35-40 yards and also had heard a "blow" from a deer, in each of the other spots.

So VABOWMAN, anytime in the woods can be informative and one must go around his/her priorities in life.
If someone is fortunate enough to have a schedule that permits perfect scouting or hunting conditions, then I would view them as very lucky woman/men[&:]!
I hope it makes sense or maybe I'm just wasting my time, but I will find out in 76-days?