by Earl Swift
First published 2026
In 1990, Earl Swift hiked the entire Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia. The experience transformed him into a better thinker and problem solver, but it also left him with troubling questions. Early in his journey, he had befriended two capable southbound hikers who were later murdered at a Pennsylvania campsite. The killer never explained the violence. Thirty-four years later, Swift returns to the trail in his sixties with two goals: to test whether he can still handle the demanding terrain and to seek answers about the tragedy that has nagged at him for decades. What happened at that remote campsite? Why were two smart, good-hearted people targeted when other hikers seemed more vulnerable? How could such violence occur in the backcountry's peaceful setting? Swift chronicles his 2024 trek through the trail's beauty while grappling with questions about risk, fate, and violence in nature.
Genres: biography, nature, adventure, memoir, 21st-century, true-crime
Vibes: haunting, introspective, meditative, reflective, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: mystery-investigation, return-to-the-past, self-discovery, unreliable-memory
Setting: Appalachian Trail, Maine, Georgia, Pennsylvania
Period: 1990, 2024
368 pages · Hardcover · Mariner Books
Content warnings: murder, violence