In Season Trail Use

[persianrug]

Found plenty of well worn trails this season, but they did not looked recently used (fresh duff, no fresh prints, no fresh poop). Didn't see any deer take these trails while sitting despite some heavy pre-season use. 5+ miles into timber without sign of other humans. Iverson, Terkla, and Haugen write about still hunting along trails and stands overlooking trails, but the fresh prints were scattered.

Has anyone else experienced this lack of trail use during the season? Feels like I'm doing something wrong if 3 blacktail authors are saying the opposite of my experience.