A moment of silence during a memorial for my father with my sisters, mother, and husband at Canyonlands National Park in April 2022.

It’s a truly absurd life

"In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back." — Albert Camus

“Adventure Unpacked” is a newsletter written by Jill Homer — who, according to social media profiles, is an "author, journalist, cyclist, trail runner, endurance junkie, and blogger who likes to go where the wind takes her.” I’ve written six books about outdoor adventures, but the bulk of my professional career has been spent in newspaper journalism — yes, the ink and paper kind. The medium was already archaic when I graduated from college at the turn of the millennium, but I remain hopelessly passionate about local journalism and its quixotic mission to connect and inform people about the stories happening in their communities.

My dad with my youngest sister, Sara, hiking in Yellowstone National Park in 1989.

My athletic career is even more unrealistically idealistic. As a child I was the classically awkward and unathletic type, going so far as to fail the Presidental Fitness Test in seventh grade and barely meeting the physical education requirements to graduate from high school. It goes without saying that I did not play sports. However, I loved to be outside — exploring the empty lots near our house or building massive sand-castle kingdoms in the backyard. When I was 14, my father invited me to join him on a hike with his work hiking group. From that point on, I was hooked on outdoor adventure.

Participating in the 2006 Susitna 100, a 100-mile bicycle race in frozen Alaska.

Having a limited aptitude for athletism but abundant enthusiasm for adventure, I was drawn into endurance cycling shortly after I moved to Alaska in late 2005. Although I’d never before raced anything of note (last place in the middle school Fun Run 5K notwithstanding), I became enthralled with an event called the Susitna 100, in which skiers, bikers, and runners race 100 miles through the Alaska backcountry on winter trails. Everyone who knew me thought I would die, but I managed to finish and again, became hooked.

Since then, I’ve devoted a huge portion of my time, money, and energy to training and racing endurance events. The pinnacle of my cycling career was riding the 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail to Nome in 2016, setting a women’s record that still stands (as of 2023.) In 2010, I took up trail running and have since completed somewhere between 50 and 75 ultramarathons — honestly, I haven’t kept track. Recently, I’ve taken a step back from racing, but I continue to prioritize outdoor recreation and training for fun and fitness.

My now-husband, Beat, and I finished the Susitna 100 together on foot in 2011.

The one endeavor that’s drawn more time, energy — and in its own way, money — than racing is writing, and specifically blogging. Since 2005, I’ve kept an outdoor adventure blog at jilloutside.com. I started the blog as a personal newsletter for friends and family, but soon became drawn into incredible connections with people from all over the world. I love to write and read long-winded (I like the term long-form) stories about people and places, the mundane and unusual, and unexpectedly delightful sides of life. When blogs fell out of fashion, I was genuinely heartbroken. I miss my old blog friends. And I mostly despise social media, as addicted to it as I am.

Still, my 17-year-old blog is falling apart. The platform is no longer maintained and issues such as spam comments and broken links are rampant. This Substack is a chance to start anew. I initially launched this newsletter in 2022 as an archiving project with old journals and photos, but my own waning interest in that project means I either need to pivot or let this newsletter go the way of so many blogs before it.

My aim is simple — to share stories and connect with other people in a way that seems lost since the heyday of blogs. There will be lots of outdoor adventure and journalism content. But I also intend to delve into some of the more complex subjects that have come to the forefront in my 40s: Challenges with physical and mental health, loss and grief, midlife shifts, reflections on relationships, reflections on an ever-changing sense of self, existentialism and the ongoing search for meaning. I welcome feedback and commentary.

If you’ve enjoyed my work, I hope you’ll subscribe to my newsletter and website.

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If life is absurd, there's nothing left to do but embrace the adventure of it all. I write essays about outdoor adventures, mid-life, mental health, existential dread and the unquenchable thirst for meaning, and learning to love the little joys.

People

Author, journalist, cyclist, trail runner, and winter lover who prefers to go where the wind takes me.