Stacey Kozel

There have been 233 Appalachian Trail Hikers who have registered themselves as having a disability.

One disabled hiker who has in fact thru-hiked the AT is one by the name of Stacey Kozel who, at the age of 41, became the first quadriplegic to accomplish all 2,190 miles. Her AT experience was made possible by the emergence of new technology rather than accessibility developments along the trail. Kozel used C Braces, computer generated leg supports, which gave her the ability to bend her knees, also giving her the trail name Iron Will.

At the age of 19, Kozel was diagnosed with Lupus, a disease that in her case attacked and devastated her spinal cord. Kozel is a T9 quadriplegic, though "she has regained enough use of her arms that she says she's functionally paraplegic, but her diagnosis remains quadriplegic." Compared to able-bodied hikers, Kozel asserts at least twice the amount of energy. In addition to her leg supports, Kozel used "her arms, shoulders, and neck muscles to compensate for the leg and abdomen muscles that no longer work". She encountered many challenges along the trail, her braces were not waterproof causing her to hide from the rain, she even had to fly home to fix her right brace but immediately returned to the trail. Kozel "walked through the night at least 10 times". When times got hard she would tell herself over and over again that "the worst day on the trail is still better than the best day in the hospital." Her biggest challenge was the final climb of Mount Katahdin. The day she arrived to the base of the mountain she decided to hike through the night in order to reach the top. Kozel continued forward through the cold weather and a rainstorm that had begun, accomplishing her last mile at around 1 am. Kozel explained how "as bad as it was on Katahdin--and it was really, really bad--it was nothing compared to being unable to move."

Though she was not escaping hard labor and city life, she was provided an escape, just like MacKaye envisioned. The Appalachian Trail was her retreat from the long and sedentary days she spent in the hospital. Kozel admitted that the people along the trial were her number one motivation and the hiking community on the AT was the best part of her journey. "She had vowed, jokingly, that she would finish Katahdin if she had to crawl to the end. And she says that's exactly what she did."

Bill Irwin

Bill Irwin

Bill Irwin, at the age of 40, in 1990, became the "first and only blind person to have completed the 2,168 mile Appalachain Trail from Georgia to Maine without human assistance or companionship". He was accompanied by his guidedog, Orient and they did not have a GPS nor a compass. 

There is both a book and a movie about him called "Blind Courage".

To read more about Bill and his trek visting hist official website HERE.