{"product_id":"up-on-cove-mountain-adventure-tragedy-and-a-quest-for-meanin-5431","title":"Up on Cove Mountain: Adventure, Tragedy, and a Quest for Meaning on the Appalachian Trail","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e34 years after hiking the Appalachian Trail, Earl Swift returned, haunted by a tragedy that befell two of his fellow hikers . . .\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A deeply personal meditation on death, aging and nature.\"\u003c\/b\u003e --\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1990, a youthful Earl Swift backpacked the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia, a transformative experience that colored every aspect of his later life. He emerged from his hike across the rugged, sky-high roof of fourteen eastern states a sharper and more organized thinker, a better problem solver, and a committed outdoorsman.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut he also left the AT with baggage: Early in his odyssey, he spent time with a couple of other southbounders, who were friendly, capable, and doing everything right, but who were nonetheless murdered weeks later at a mountaintop campsite in Pennsylvania--a fit of violence that the killer never explained.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHalf a lifetime later, Swift returned to the trail to find out whether he was still, in his sixties, equal to the AT's roller-coaster terrain. Driving him, too, was a quest for answers that had nagged at him since that first hike: What had happened at that campsite to turn two smart, bighearted people into prey? Why had fate chosen them, when other hikers--Swift included--seemed more likely candidates? And how could such a grisly episode have unfolded in the backcountry's sylvan loveliness, not to mention one of the safest places around?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eUp on Cove Mountain\u003c\/i\u003e is the arresting account of Swift's 2024 trek through the AT's enduring wonders and the ghosts of its past, a chronicle of swashbuckling adventure coupled with a meditation on the nature of risk and the risks of nature.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eEarl Swift\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller \u003ci\u003eChesapeake Requiem\u003c\/i\u003e, which was named to ten best-of-the-year lists. His most recent book, \u003ci\u003eHell Put to Shame\u003c\/i\u003e, was a finalist for the Edgar Award (Best Fact Crime) and the Virginia Literary Award. A former reporter for \u003ci\u003eThe Virginian-Pilot \u003c\/i\u003eand a contributor to \u003ci\u003eOutside\u003c\/i\u003e and other publications, he lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains west of Charlottesville\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Earl Swift","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52791440900381,"sku":"9780063265431","price":32.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0821\/9095\/8877\/files\/9780063265431.jpg?v=1787255343","url":"https:\/\/www.anovelideaphilly.com\/products\/up-on-cove-mountain-adventure-tragedy-and-a-quest-for-meanin-5431","provider":"A Novel Idea on Passyunk","version":"1.0","type":"link"}