For me, trail cameras really only serve as a confidence boost to verify that animals are indeed using the trail I suspected. Cameras rarely tell you something you already didn't know. That is, you placed them on an obvious trail, and low and behold, the camera found game on the obvious trail. Cameras are only as smart as you are with respect to sign.
I'll sometimes hunt a trail for a week straight because I'm encouraged by a half dozen photos taken during the two prior months. And I often see nothing. In that sense, trail cameras can be misleading. On the other hand, this past year, my camera showed bears using a trail every day for the previous five days and I ended up harvesting one on the sixth day. That might be the only time that's happened. Before I hunted that sixth day, my wife asked me if she should meet me on the mountain to help me pack out a bear. She was sure I'd encounter one. I told her not to bother because I was sure I wouldn't see anything. I was wrong. She met me on the mountain anyway. She's a keeper.
By the way, how are folks hunting where there is cell coverage? I didn't know that was a thing.
