Sounds like you're on the right track.
You don't have to point north, but I generally avoid pointing south, and/or directly into either a rising or setting sun. This is simply a "sun" issue, as the sun can cause exposure issues, as well as "glare" off your lens (making the cam more visible to humans and other animals). No matter what direction pointed, it should work the same at night, and for most of any day.
Generally speaking, whether I have a cam mounted 10 feet high or 2 feet high, avoid having the "aim" anything above "level with the ground". My preference is usually to be at least slightly aimed downward (typically with the cam about 3 feet high for deer). This helps prevent under-exposed daytime images which can be caused by having too much "sky" in your pics. Doesn't matter at night.
Don't know if you're only wanting deer, but if you mount a little lower than waist-high, say about 2 feet, you'll usually get more and better other "smaller" wildlife pics, such as coyote, fox, rabbits, etc. And you still get the deer. The issue with lower mounting is typically weed and other ground growth during the spring/summer months. Higher mounting is mainly needed when weeds are taller, and/or for those not using invisible black-flash cams.
Not sure what the factory default setting are, but I usually prefer the cam to take the best quality pics for which it's capable. On that cam, I prefer the image quality to be set at 12mp. Just be sure to use an SD card large enough not to fill up before you come back. On trails, an 8mp card will likely last well over a month if not months to a year. Which brings up one other thing: You need a minimum of two SD cards. When you re-visit the cam, simply make sure the cam is working, check the battery level (that cam should be good for at least several months before a battery change), exchange the SD card, then look at your pics away from the cam. Save the pics you want on your computer, clear the card, then repeat the process when you re-visit the cam.
