When you follow a buck trail up a hill into heavy cover, or into heavy cover (without the hill), and loose the trail, you' re probably close, because the buck is no longer following a trail on a regular basis, because he beds in one spot one day, another spot another day etc. Those spots are usually based on the weather conditions each day: which way the wind blows, hot or cold temperatures/windchills, raining or not, low visibility or not.