Topography, roads, and The Rut

[Canis Latrans]

I'm curious to get opinions on my situation. Hunting public land with good pressure in central NY.

I've heard that during the rut a good tactic is to sit on the leeward side of a ridge for cruising bucks. So assuming the wind is blowing west to east, one would find a ridge running north to south and post up somewhere on the east side of the ridge? From following Dan I gather that most buck cruising would be on the top 1/3 of the ridge or hills. Stop me if I'm wrong.

What I haven't heard is how things like roads, houses, power lines etc. will affect this cruising. If you have a north/south running ridge and a telephone line bisects it east to west, will this cause the bucks to act differently? Will they be less likely to cross this during the day?

How would you set up in this area? Keep in mind I can only hunt north of the power lines. The Red, Blue, Green and Yellow dots are where I'm considering putting stands. Wind is from left to right. The roads shown here are not driven often. My guess would be it would be hunter traffic on them. Can anyone help me out with suggestions? Thank you.

[Ryan]

The thing I've noticed with power lines is easy hunter access and if it's public there's probably hunters on the power line, the yellow looks like a good area on a bench but I would move it back a little bit more toward the draw you might be right on deer beds if you set up on the point

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[dan]

I wouldn't be on the yellow dot bench in rut... I would be about where the "1900" elevation number is located. They will certainly cross roads and telephone cuts, but will do so with caution or find a different way around or split off of the thermal tunnel and head elsewhere... Best to be on a long leeward hillside where they can cruise a distance.