Slamfire: Moving faster means moving jerky, for humans, and that jerking motion draws attention. There is nothing else in nature that moves that way. If you want to cover ground you have to learn to bend over at the waste to reduce your silhouette, and move with bent knees, in a " Glide " motion. Sometimes you are going to have to crawl across open gaps in trees, but you want to only stand up when you are next to and behind a tree from the area you want to hunt. You also have to pay attention to not only wind direction, but also ground currents, as you have so many updrafts in the foothills and mountains where you hunt mule deer. When the sun is out, it heats the ground and air causing it to move up the sides of ravines, and hills and mountains. Muley's are famous for laying up on a South facing slope where they can be warmed by the sun, but use their noses to smell danger from below. If they have a weakness, its not thinking much about looking up. You also need to take advantage of shadows, cast by clouds moving overhead. That temporary change in light conditions can be used to conceal movement on a stalk. Always go with the clouds, of course. If that is away from where you want to go, well, wait until you are under a large cloud and move slower to another point of cover.
The biggest problem I see hunters doing is making a lot of noise, dragging and stomping their feet in the woods. They are not even aware of the noise they make. And they don't have a clue how to stop it. I have had guys approach me in the woods when I have been hunting, where I can hear them coming, even with my bad ears, at over 50 yds. Often they don't even see me in my wonderful blaze orange, so I also have to wonder how they look, and what they are looking to see. On one of the rare times I used a tree stand, I had a man walk right under me, and never looked up, until I talked to him. He had not seen me, the ladder, nothing. And he walked like a freight train coming and going. I was hoping the deer in the neighborhood couldn't count and if they had heard me, they would think I had also gone. Sure enough about an hour later a doe appeared, but did not get within range for a shot.
