w. El Arco refugio and natural bridge

The El Arco refugio was built Feb 2003, complete with central firepit and baños alongside. The 'Agua' sign points to a path about 1Km long, climbing over and along logs and around little pools of mud, eventually it leads down a steep slope to a river. Inside there is room for around 10 people to sleep in comfort. The lack of raised sleeping area means that the floor is quite dirty, so some kind of sleeping bag protection is needed.

New El Arco refugio GPS co-ordinates

S	41°25.769
W	72°02.436

El Arco itself is about 5 minutes further on. Very shortly after the refugio the path splits, the right hand path ( heading north ) is the mud and log slide that leads down to EL Arco. The horse-flies were quite bearable here and the shade of the trees over the river bank makes a good meal stop. The path then continues on the other side of the river. Expect a knee-thigh deep crossing in a dry early January.

Another 45 minutes brings you to the old refugio in a meadow off to the left of the path. You have to keep an eye out for it, it's easy to miss. One section of it is burnt out, the roof is no longer water-tight and the number of mosquitos there in the afternoon makes the place quite miserable. Worth looking at on the way past but not worth staying a night at, although it would be quite easy to camp in the meadow. The path continues to be quite muddy from here on, until past Campo Aventura in the next section of map, when the laid logs are a great help.