Remi Warren is a hunter who commands your attention.
As an adult-onset hunter myself, whereas most other hunters are doing their thing through YouTube University to sell you something or trying to convince you that only their way is the right way of hunting, Warren's aim is one where teaching is far more important. He wants you in the field experiencing what he experiences. Whether that's the penetrating bugle of a bull elk, a sun's early morning rise, the hairs on the back of your neck sticking up from the adrenaline of a well-placed shot, or the beauty of being connected with the land we inhabit through the harvest of an animal that'll fill your freezer.
He wants you there. But he doesn't tell you, he shows you, as good teachers always do.
Warren's adventures have taken him all over the world, from hunting and guiding in New Zealand, chasing muskox in the Arctic, caribou in Greenland, and to the rocky cliffs of Alaska's mountains to go after sheep. He's been a hunting guide, a hunting instructor, and someone in the hunting media for decades. Suffice it to say, he's done a lot, and his knowledge base is wildly impressive. Warren's also seen the industry change a lot in recent years, with the advent of social media, YouTube, and even the rise of the side-by-side industry, something I was eager to chat with him about at the recent Western Hunt Expo in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Why? Because UTVs are becoming ubiquitous. They're quickly replacing everyone's very expensive trucks in the field, as they're cheaper to purchase, maintain, and fix. You can beat them up, go places where your truck can't, and get them as bloody or dirty as you want without concern.
But their adoption has received a lot of pushback from many of the old hats in the industry, as well as those in comments sections on YouTube, forums, and websites. And Warren's background in going into dark, nasty holes, places where only your feet and grit will get you there, had the potential to side with those comments. Do UTVs really belong in spots where backpacking in can deliver you, too?
As you'd expect from a man as accomplished as Warren is, however, his answer is far more nuanced, and one built on the principle of using these machines as the tools they are. As well as not acting like an idiot when you hit the trail and ruining it for the rest of us.
RideApart: You are known as the backpack guy.
Remi Warren: Yep.
RA: But you've partnered with UTV companies in the past, and you're now partnered with Kawasaki. What made you start utilizing those tools and has that changed your hunting practices?
RW: I mean, I've always used some form of UTV to access the places that I get into. A lot of the places that I might be, even on a backpack hunt, you still have to get to where you're hiking to. I grew up in Nevada, and Nevada has two paved roads for the most part. Every other highway is dirt and those are pretty rough. And then off of that is a two-track for miles that is just as rough as it gets. It beats up everything that you own. Most of these places you can't get a truck or you wouldn't want to get your truck.
So it's just getting to that spot where, “Hey, this is the place where I'm going to get into and start hunting.” You still have to get there.
I do what might be considered backcountry hunting. But that's not all of my hunting. There's a lot of hunts where I'm hunting what I consider the frontcountry or day hunting, certain areas where I'm hunting an area. And it doesn't mean that I'm not hiking in 5, 10, 15 miles or more. Oftentimes, I feel like on a backcountry hunt, you actually hike less than you do in your day hunting because you can cover more grounds, you're moving a little bit lighter and faster. And being mobile is very important for, in a lot of ways, finding success because when you're mobile, if the animals aren't where you are, you need to be able to move.
RA: I think you once said, “Don't be afraid to change up your spots.”
RW: Yeah. So even just getting into a new area, I spend the first day, or even two or three, if I have five days, I might just be cruising around the area, looking for a place to hunt, essentially scouting within the unit. Not even just talking about scouting prior to the season scouting. Maybe I've got a tag and I don't have a lot of time to go ahead of time going in cold. And I go, “Okay, I can do a lot of e-scouting, I can do all that stuff.” But when it comes time to getting boots on the ground, I really want to see what it looks like firsthand.
And more of that's just previewing country, traveling through the unit, being able to move efficiently and be able to cover a lot of ground covering a lot of ground can be a big difference maker, especially when you don't really know where the animals might be. I've done it long enough where I can, once I've traveled through the area and taken those different roads and checked out different spots and go, “Oh, that's the spot that I want to hike into,” or “This is the spot where I want to sit down in glass,” or “This is where I'm going to start hunting.” Maybe I also just randomly came across a good population of animals in this particular area. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't.
But UTVs just open up more country and allows me to get into animals quicker.
RA: You said earlier that you've been using ATVs and UTVs for a long time. How has that transition from the old school, more farm equipment type of UTV to these new models been? Have they made you just that much more efficient?
RW: It’s allowed me to get into places and hunt more efficiently from it because there's a lot of roads that, I mean the old school UTVs, I mean I've rolled one before. In Nevada, the roads are so bad you have to have something that's prepared for it. You need high clearance.
And now, my Kawasaki Ridge has an HVAC system, and the dust is a big thing. The sun, you just get beat up. But man, now I can take that, just tow it out, and I can rip around a unit. You aren't worried, “Am I going to make it down this road? Am I going to get out of here?” Especially when you're exploring and just the factor of just beating yourself up in a full-sized vehicle.
RA: Has it made it easier for you to take new hunters out because they aren’t getting so beaten up?
RW: Absolutely. I think there's a lot of places that you can just access and get to faster, easier, more efficiently. It is a tool that just multiplies the use of your time in the field really is the way that I see it. And I mean, there's a lot of places that you go and I’ll take the Ridge up with some buddies, and then just park it there. We might hike down and then pick up their truck, but it takes us three hours to get up the road in the truck that we got up in 30 minutes. Afterward, you go, “Oh, okay, I'm never doing that again. I'm never not having this thing.”
It goes on every hunt with me. I put a lot of miles on every season just driving around. And also it keeps me from beating up my full size pickup, too. Trucks are so expensive now. They're so expensive. I just got a new truck and I'm like, there's no way. I used to hunt in my trucks. I used to be like, “Ah, whatever.” But now there is no way I'm hunting in my truck ever again.
RA: My deer two seasons ago and my bull elk last year, yeah, I could not have gotten to those spots with a truck. There's no way in hell I would’ve even come close, as where I arrowed my deer last year, my side-by-side was on two wheels. Just two wheels.
RW: That kind of stuff is like, I don't know, I've been on bad roads enough in my life that I'm like, it makes sense. It's worth it. It's worth the investment to just have that as my hunting rig, be able to trailer it and tow it to where I want rip around, check out a unit, and just be more efficient with my time and where I'm hunting.
RA: What as a community can we do to maybe rein in and police some of the bad off-road behavior? I mean, RideApart is a powersports website that talks about conservation and public land access, and one of the big things I see from commenters is “UTVs just tear trails up!” OK, but that’s probably only 10% of the population doing that, while the other 90% are law abiding citizens. How can we be better stewards and be vocal about it?
RW: I think the way that I see it is stay on the trails, stay on the roads, follow the rules. There're rule breakers in every category and I don't really know where that comes from because full-sized vehicles tear up roads way more. They're heavier, they're digging in. It's harder for them to climb. That's ABS. That’s traction control.
As far as current roads and trails, I don't see a problem with [UTVs]. I actually think that they lessen the impact on it. The problem is when you get people who want to drive off the roads and they start creating their own roads, and that's a very small subset of people. Oftentimes, I think this just should be, you would think that people could self-police that, right? But they're like, “Oh, if I just drive up there, it'll make it easier.”
I think you have to look at it as it's a tool to get to where you need to get, but not to break the rules and destroy the landscape. And I've found the benefit of them without ever driving off the roads. There's still the benefit. You can still enjoy it without driving off a road. I think the term off-road vehicle gets mistaken.
Off pavement vehicle is what I offroad means. I think that it's one of those things that you see a lot more regulations that you didn't see before on their use and where you can use them. And I think you're just going to continue to see more of that because people can't use them how they're intended to be used.
RA: How will UTVs change your hunting going forward?
RW: Well, for me, one of the other reasons that I use 'em is a safety factor. I've been pretty puckered up in a truck on some pretty bad roads. And I feel like if I can take the Kawasaki with me, it's a lot safer now.
But the thing that I've noticed over time is the seasonality has been extended because of the way that some of the feature sets that they've come out with, especially with the enclosed cab, the heaters, the AC. I felt like before, I only used them a certain time of year. Now I use it year round. There's times that you wouldn't utilize it in certain situations at certain times a year. But now I use it pretty much year round. It just provides better access. And it's just a simpler, less stressful experience getting into where you're going and oftentimes a lot safer.
Just keeping things dustproof, too, to keep your gear from getting destroyed is huge. In Nevada, we call it bug dust. It's like the fine, powdered sugar silt and it destroys every piece of gear you've ever owned. So for the most part, I either have a box in the back, or I have all my gear in the cab, and I make sure to pressurize the cab by running the AC. Just that was a big game changer for me. Just keeping that dust out. I've breathed so much dust over the years…
RA: Big same. We’re all dying. [laughs] Is there anything you’d want for your future UTV that no one makes?
RW: Better accessories. I feel like wherever I put my bow, carrying a bow around is a pain in the butt and bounces around a little bit and you just want it somewhere safe. So just something that somebody's got to find a way to make secured storage better. Especially bows.
RA: I'm always nervous about that. I had my bow in the front seat last season strapped down as tight as I could just so it didn't move in the case. And it's just like, this is not…
RW: Ideal. No, it's not ideal. And then you want to start using the seats and everything else, then you start sacrificing storage. Maybe a roof mount system or something?
RA: I killed my roof storage with a rooftop tent…
RW: But then you'd be worried about arrows falling out and danger that way. There’s got to be something. And you also want it to be fairly accessible. You don't want it in the back where you got to take forever to get to. Every time it's a pain in the ass. I want it ready to go.
RA: Do you have any hacks, anything that you found that is useful to you when going out into the back country, aside from the air conditioning to pressurize the cabin from dust?
RW: I guess one of the things I always keep in mind would be tire plugs, a tire repair kit and a compressor. I mean, I helped a guy last year. He had his side-by-side but had none of his recovery stuff in it. They've got a winch, right, but then you're potentially prone to getting yourself stuck.
I think just keeping your gear a little bit organized, too. Stuff rolls around and moves around pretty much. So I just try to keep my gear organized, and I use Yeti boxes, those go boxes, to keep things organized.
But stuff rattles around, moves around just a bit.
And then the other thing is just follow the rules. You don't want this to be a thing that, because there's so many people breaking the rules, they end up banning something. But there are places where roads start to close down, access gets decreased because people just can't follow the rules that are already in place. So they're making more rules for the people that are already breaking the rules. That sucks. But that's how it's always going to be.
So when you're in an area, there are specific rules that maybe apply when you're hunting and using certain roads and other things. But it might not apply when you aren't hunting. So thinking about those things is something that I always look into every time I go into a new area and you should, too.
