''The A.M.C. is about bringing people to the outdoors,'' Mr. Graff said. ''The fact they're in wheelchairs or otherwise disabled shouldn't prevent that.''

But others did mind, or at least raised challenges. A local television reporter asked why, if people in wheelchairs could drag themselves up the trail, they could not drag themselves up steps to the hut. One Appalachian Mountain Club member wrote to the group's magazine: ''So what does a tired hiker see when he gets to the hut? A wheelchair ramp. Any reasonable person is going to be shocked, then bemused. What a waste of money.'' Another said that the federal disability rules could be read to mean that all trails should be paved, and demanded, ''When will A.M.C. start to fight such insane regulations instead of meekly acquiescing?''

At Northeast Passage, a program at the University of New Hampshire that works with people with disabilities, news that the hut would be accessible at first prompted casual plans to try to go, said Jill Gravink, the program's director.

Then, when the criticism started coming out, ''All of a sudden it was, 'Hey, we have to make this trip,' '' she said. ''Nicole Haley rolled into my office with a newspaper article and said, 'I'm doing this, are you guys coming?' '' They took it as a real slap in the face, like, 'Who are you to tell me I can't do this? How do you know how much of my own sweat I'm willing to put into getting up there?' ''

(As for the television reporter, Ms. Gravink said she responded: ''Why bother putting steps on the hut at all? Why not drag yourself in through a window?'')

And so, after almost a year of planning, with organization by Northeast Passage and help from We Media, an advocacy media group for people with disabilities, along with other sponsors, the hikers set off about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The three who used wheelchairs were trying out special Terra Trek-brand models engineered for the most rugged terrain; they and their helpers had devised a variety of tested but still experimental tricks, from long poles that could let helpers lift the wheelchairs almost like rickshaw bearers, to tethers that let helpers pull the chairs like oxen, to simple planks that could be laid over brook crossings or rough ground.