Yep, that's what keeps me interested all these years. I wish I could walk distance in rubber/neoprene boots, but I have flat feet and Morton's toe, so if I walk a mile in slip ons, I'm gonna be all kinds of not good. I just do as much as I can to keep my leather boots not loaded with human scent.
With the October lull, I think a lot of it is that folks start walking to the same stand over and over and then...surprise.....the deer disappear. Or they do the same thing in the rut, and again....surprise....they stop seeing deer and then they blame "lockdown".