Up on Cove Mountain: Adventure, Tragedy, and a Quest for Meaning on the Appalachian Trail

Up on Cove Mountain: Adventure, Tragedy, and a Quest for Meaning on the Appalachian Trail by Early Swift (2026), 368 pages 

I seem to be on a kick of reading novels where middle-aged men revisit an adventure from their youth. Between Mississippi Solo, Walking with Sam and Up on Cove Mountain, I have found the latter to be the most interesting. BUT, if I was likely to actually undertake one of the three treks, it would definitely be the Camino de Santiago (then the Mississippi River with the Appalachian Trail a far third). Why? Because Swift does an excellent job of conveying just how hard and long the trail is. I cannot imagine doing it twice, with the second time being 66 years-old. Swift notes how the trail has changed over 34 years and how climate change has affected the availability of resources (especially water) for hikers. I learned a lot about how people hike the trail, trail culture, and what it means to thru-hike. I thought it meant you did the hike in one long fell-swoop. Apparently, it is not uncommon to leave the trail and come back many times and, as long as you complete it within a year, you are considered a thru-hiker. Swift also touches upon a tragedy that happened during his first thru-hike: the murder of a young couple on the trail. He had interacted a few times with this couple and their murder shocked him and the otherwise insular AT community. While this is an interesting sub-plot, the majority of the book is devoted to what it means to hike the trail and the self-discovery it brings along the way.