Don't worry that an area is too large or you don't live there - it makes it harder but nowhere near impossible. if i can find deer anyone can,. there's different ways to do it, i like to get topo maps and do my best to find saddles on ridges, or benches or funnels of some sort or use aerial photos to find edges of different kinds or near by agriculture or water. take your 3 or 4 of your best guess - and when you go there take a day for scouting and go to those areas and keep them small in your mind, don't get intimidated by the size of the area an quickly scout out 50 acres or so in those areas - is there any food here, any cover, any trails or sign. hopefully one or more of the areas will look promising and go for it, if not take your next 3 guesses or do some driving, look around for deer or squirrels or turkey or look for thick cover - just don't feel like you need to know the whole area, or see the big picture, or find the very best spot. Find a good area and see what you see and adapt and learn a little more each year. Just my opinion of course. Good luck.

by the way if you come by the thruway and you hit Syracuse, it's 30 min. to an hour to these area's north, if you go another hour west instead to Rochester, I can show you a couple area's here - but they will be a little more crowded but they are good. i bet a couple of area's like bear spring mt. and partridge run and captial district wma's are decent too and closer to MA.

Eric