Virginian Earl Swift loves the Appalachian Trail. As a young man, he kept moving closer and closer to it, as if inching toward a girl he wanted to know, eventually leasing “a goddamn eyesore” apartment because it was located at an AT trailhead. In early 1990, he took the big swing and hiked south from Maine. His fellow thru-hikers, the trail magic, the simplicity—it was a revelation. And so, Swift was particularly spun out when a pair of hikers, Geoff Hood and Molly Larue, were murdered a few days behind him on the trail. He spent the next thirty years haunted by the violence, and in 2024 returned to hike the AT for answers. Part true crime, part trail memoir, Cove Mountain’s search leads back to what Swift loved most about the AT: its people.