RE: spooking the deer away scouting
As others have said, as long as you are not going through the same area every day or two you will not run them off. I scout on and off throughout the year, one way to confirm a bedding area is to jump a deer in the middle of the day, this teaches you several things, it confirms where deer bed, it confirms their escape route and also lets you know an area to avoid when going to and from a stand. I jumped a nice buck last week, I will avoid the immediate area where he is bedding and set up about 100 yards away where 3-4 heavily traveled trails come together, I have already determined how to enter and exit the stand and not mess with the bedding area.