Molly LaRue and Geoff Hood pose at the foot of Katahdin, Maine’s tallest peak and the Appalachian Trail’s northern terminus, in June 1990. In 1990, a youthful Earl Swift hiked the Appalachian Trail (AT) from Maine to Georgia. The result is Up on Cove Mountain: Adventure, Tragedy, and a Quest for Meaning on the Appalachian Trail, coming from Mariner Books on August 18. ADVERTISEMENTA day’s hike south of Lakes of the Clouds, the trail leaves the ridgetop to descend the sheer, two-thousand-foot Webster Cliffs. Had Molly and Geoff finished their hike, I wonder whether I’d recall anything about our time at the Sugar House.