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They were about 4,000 feet high, standing in a rockslide roughly three-quarters of the way up Mount Katahdin, the tallest peak in Maine, when they said goodbye. It was 4 p.m., with just a few hours of daylight left, and Stacey Kozel and her friend, Patsy Remington, decided to go in opposite directions.Kozel would go up and spend the night on the dark and foreboding mountain.Remington would go down and sleep.Kozel planned to find a place to hide from the elements among the giant boulders that were just above her -- a dangerous proposition on any night, and especially so on this October evening, with howling winds, plummeting temperatures and an angry rainstorm.Adding to the danger is the fact Kozel is paralyzed and walks with braces. But she was willing to risk a night alone on Katahdin because getting to Katahdins summit -- another mile and a half or so over extremely rugged terrain -- would allow her to complete the entire 2,189.1 mile Appalachian Trail, an impressive accomplishment for an able-bodied person and an unbelievable one for Kozel, a T9 quadriplegic. (She has regained enough use of her arms that she says shes functionally paraplegic, but her diagnosis remains quadriplegic.)If she finished, she would be the first person with her condition known to hike the entire the trail. If she didnt complete it, she would view it as a failure because she would be letting down thousands of people she so desperately wanted to inspire.Kozel had already climbed some 2,700 feet that day. She didnt want to go down and have to re-do that. Plus, she had already tried and failed three times to summit Mount Katahdin in the past year. As dangerous as it was, this was her last, best chance.Kozel didnt want Remington to stay up there with her, as it was far outside of Remingtons comfort zone, but Remington didnt want to leave her friend alone up there, either. But she knew better than to argue. You cant say to Stacey, No, stop, come down, Remington says.The plan was for Remington to hike down to Kozels Jeep (license plate UNSTPBL), sleep in there, and in the morning climb back up. She would find Kozel, and they would finish the climb together.After Remington left, the weather turned from pleasant to nasty, and Kozel changed her mind about that plan. She didnt want to wait that long. The cold, wind and rain made hypothermia a real threat, but if she kept moving, she would keep warm, or at least warmer. What if the rain didnt stop for hours? What if her legs swelled again, as they often had since she started the trail in March? What if she cramped up?What if this, what if that, what if the other?All those questions had made Kozel want to quit 1,000 times.Two years ago, as she lay completely paralyzed in a hospital bed, unable to even lift her head, she had looked out the window and longed to be outside and active. As bad as it was on Katahdin -- and it was really, really bad -- it was nothing compared to being unable to move. She had beaten total paralysis. She was determined to beat this mountain, too.So she pressed onward and upward, looking for the trails tell-tale white blazes, the spray-painted rectangles that direct hikers where to go. She got to the boulders. The metal braces on her legs kept them locked straight, which made climbing the boulders arduous.The sky turned black, the temperature dropped, and rain started pouring down. Her fingers were so cold she couldnt grip her poles. If I stay out here any longer, I might lose a few fingers, she thought to herself. Im hiking out here without legs, whats a couple fingers?Kozel climbed on. Could she make it? She didnt know. But she knew she couldnt stop.I remember holding her as an infant, says Mary Kozel, Staceys mom. I was sitting on the couch. I told her, Im going to raise you to be tough and independent. Now that I look back I think, Oh my gosh, I mig