Don’t lose hope dear internetting ones, we still have every intention of launching the full Outsider’s Almanac website in the near future, it just won’t be quite as soon as we had hoped. We’re pretty insanely busy these days, between writing projects, client needs, body/mind/spirit rehabbing and the pursuit of winter in it’s many splendered and distracting forms, but you should expect to see the site live by around April 1st, 2010.

We’ve got our sites on making Outsider’s Almanac the most exhaustive and user friendly site for all Outsider activities by combining tutorials with expert articles, videos, web based and mobile communication apps, up-to-the-minute live and critical information on sites and conditions, gear reviews, site reviews, events, and so much more.

Like you, we love the Outside, it’s beautiful out here, and boy is it easy to get distracted. We wouldn’t want it any other way.

Film maker, OA Woody Creek correspondent and all around American Hero Wayne Ewing sent me an article today about a new movement taking foot in the shadows of New York City. Self-proclaimed urban cavemen sustain themselves solely on red meat and some vegetables and fruits. In addition, they eat in a manner that would mimic the hunting and gathering of that time, gorging on red meat and then fasting for one, two or three days. Their thought is that primitive man – though he was typically lucky to live to 30 – was in much better shape than the pudgy, modern, air conditioned nightmares that haunt the earth presently.

“Mr. De Vany’s blog promotes what he calls Evolutionary Fitness. Like his disciples in New York, he believes that ancient humans could perform physical feats that would awe the gym rats of today.

His followers believe that he too is capable of fearsome feats. When Mr. Durant told a gathering of New York cavemen that he had seen Mr. De Vany at a seminar in Las Vegas, Matthew Sanocki, 34, asked if Mr. De Vany looked as muscular in the flesh as in pictures on his blog.

“He looks great,” Mr. Durant said. “You feel like he could, at a moment’s notice, charge at you and trample you.”

Already, the New York cavemen are getting attention from the patriarchs of the paleo movement. One such figure, Erwan Le Corre, a Frenchman whom the magazine Men’s Health said “may rank as one of the most all-around physically fit men on the planet,” stopped by Mr. Durant’s while visiting the city in December. The men sealed their friendship with what both described as a bare-chested — and in Mr. Le Corre’s case, barefoot — run across the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges on a frigid night.”

It’s not a rare occurance any more to find a stark reminder in just about every populated pocket of this tumbling rock that pretty much everyone drawing air these days is out of their friggin’ minds, though I am encouraged by the particular brand of crazy these cavemen are bringing to the table. It’s almost like, quietly, in a distinctly macho manner, old mother gaia is blushingly making amends for all the lame vegans skulking about our fair neighborhoods.

Ah, what balance emerges when the collective consciousness gets goose pimples from vertigo.

Read the whole article here.

Woke up this morning early, without a hangover, a rare Saturday occurrence.  Thought I’d try and get some work done and in the process ran across a story I’d started just after we got back from the Lake Vermilion fishing trip. Well, one thing led to another and before I knew it I fell into a fly fishing hole. After a few hours of internet research I am now thinking that the time may be nigh to begin exploring this beautiful art that has intrigued me for years.

The thing about fly fishing is that aside from the end goal of landing a fish, it holds few similarities in either technique or equipment to the rod and reel fishing I’m used to. Here’s an illustrative video:

It seems to me that the most important place to start is understanding the equipment necessary for the task at hand, so far Fly anglers Online has been the best resource I’ve run into, they do a real nice job of taking you through the whole process from choosing equipment to tying flies and landing fish.

Fly fishing certainly seems to be the sort of thing you want some helpful one on one advice and how to’s on. Luckily that information is available right here in Chicago. I think my next step will be to walk into The Chicago fly Fishing Outfitters, admit my total ignorance and see where that leads me. Place seems pretty cool and they offer classes on tying your own fly’s as well as sweet gear.

If we had this guy on our Lake Vermilion Fishing vacation we probably would have eaten a bit better.

Apparently, this was a real commercial back in those decadent mid-90’s. Ahh, that wonderful pre-9/11 world, full of senseless acts of senselessness and rich with double entendre.

Does anybody have a Wunder Boner? The only place I could find it for sale is sold out. I’d love to review it.

Here’s some video of our “afternoon commute” on Lake Vermilion, going out from Black Bay over to Schmidt’s Island to fish for Walleye. It’s all POV and, my hope is, will give me something to stick my head into come mid-February to remember that the world is not always so cold or covered in so much death.

Ladies and Gentleman… the inimitable David Lynch.

I’ve been on a mad heat for the custom design world of the internet to meet it’s worthy bride, the Koozie, for sometime now. Much to my delight I just ran across customink this afternoon, where now all of my custom koozie ambitions can come true.

The design tools aren’t perfect, but they do allow you to make quite a few choices and you can upload your own images. Minimum runs are 105 and come in at less than $2 dollars per Koozie. The site doesn’t offer the ability to market or sell your designs like threadless or cafepress, but you can email them to friends which is cool.

By the way, my roommate has already informed me that my design is base and classless, which, I thought, was the point of a koozie. So please lovely women of the world, swallow your righteous anger knowing that I have taken heed and am already a better man.

Due to our rather frustrating week fishing for Walleye up in Lake Vermilion in Minnesota I’ve set myself several goals to improve my Walleye catching skills before next year. At the top of that list is, you guessed it, to fish more for Walleye.

I came across this article detailing the top 10 lakes for catching Walleye in Illinois.

“Lake-dwelling walleyes in Illinois beyond the Fox Chain were once regarded as little more than a “bonus” species before the Jake Wolf Hatchery facility came on-line. We are now enjoying fish-production capabilities of the Illinois hatchery system that were only dreamed about 15 years ago, with walleyes and hybrid saugeyes thriving in lakes that either didn’t exist or only held bass and panfish when our fathers were fishin.’”

I think, due to convenience more than anything, I’ll start with Shabbona, though I’m excited to have a good excuse to take my motorcycle back down south and work the beautiful Lake Kinkaid. Sitting just outside of Carbondale and the Shawnee National Forest these are some of my favorite spots in Illinois to ride my 2002 V-Star Classic.

Read the whole article here.