Battery life is greatly reduced in the cold and flight time is not much anyway. You can buy a good drone for $1000.00 and a couple mile range, 30 minute flight time in warm weather, less than half in cold.

I prefer flying Google Earth. Less money and better views and can fly almost anywhere in any weather!

I had good luck with buying air photo NEGATIVES of my trapline from Aeromap in Anchorage. They are taken from 5000 feet and are flown at a heading of true north.
At that scale they overlay perfectly with a 1:63000 topo sheet. I overlay mine and hold them against a window. But a guy could do the same with a light table.

It is remarkable how things have changed since the mapping was done...probably 100 years difference between the maps and air photos. Obviously, watercourses have changed the most.

It is possible, when looking at the negatives, to see individual bushes and trees. The negatives are about 10"x10" . I had to get several to cover my entire line. Much cheaper than buying a drone.
I suspect everything these days is digital but they likely still have a lot of those old negatives in storage

You guys are aware of "Alaska Mapper" aren't you?

I think it would be perfectly legal to use it to scout cutting a trail. Heck it is legal to scout for game out of an aircraft, you just can't hunt the same day. That is where I think you might run into issues, can you hunt the same day as operate a drone? Even if you aren't using it to scout for game? I bet if you had an LEO who had it in for you, and you used the drone to see where to cut a trail, then later that day shot a grouse or coyote or whatever, that he might write you a ticket for hunting the same day you operated an aircraft.

A lot of times you have to decide, not if it is legal or not, but whether it is worth the hassle of fighting it in court or not.

Here is another riddle. Regulations states: Your are prohibited from using a cell phone in the taking of game. So if i am walking down a trail and a hare hops out. Just 5 feet from me. I have no firearm or bow an arrow. Just my cell phone. So I throw my cell phone at the hare. Did i violate the regulation?

I know that at times, and on certain proposals, the BOG can spend more time, (some issues MUCH more time), hashing out language than debating proposals. Then the legal department would also spend time hashing out legalese, re-visit minutes from the meeting to dial in intent, and then run said language through the BOG members, State Departments, (ADFG), and Enforcement. And even after all that, it always came down to Field Agents, (my personal slang for a few certain Wildlife Troopers), interpretation and willingness to exert their own version of "intent".

To clarify just a bit my claim of how confusing the word "take" can be...

One of the words in the definition of "take" is to "pursue." And, for example, you must validate your Harvest Ticket immediately upon taking, right?

Does that mean that as soon as you spot a moose and you go after it (thus "pursuing" said moose) you must validate your Harvest Ticket? You are pursuing the moose. But you haven't "killed" it (yet another defintiion of take!) yet.

See what I mean? Troopers will tell you "Of course not!" But the fact remains, you pursued the moose. And take means, among other things, pursue!

This goes to show why I had a bumper sticker printed and stuck to my BOG brief case: "Simplify Game Regulations!"

Pete