Climbing Sterling is not unusual for us. We hike up Sterling a lot. What was unusual on this trip was that we hiked over to Watson Camp on the north side of Sterling Pond, and found it on the ground:
The Green Mountain Club has been talking about removing this camp for a while, so I think the camp was taken down intentionally. From their web site: "Other things we hope to get to in 2009, depending on funding and the number of volunteers available: ...completing the dismantling and removal of Watson Camp..."I cannot find a history of Watson Camp online. But my recollection is that Thomas J. Watson, Jr. bought land on top of Sterling Mountain and built this camp as a private camp. He later gave the land and camp to the GMC. I remember being told that this was the first land (about 1/2 acre) that the GMC ever owned, and for some years it was the only land they owned. (Now they own a lot of land.) I believe that a related part of the story is that the reason there is an IBM plant in Essex Jct. is that Mr. Watson liked skiing at Smugglers Notch Ski Area, and he reasoned that at least some IBM employees might like to live nearby. (As noted in the link, Mr. Watson had a great deal to do with starting the Smugglers Notch Ski Area.)
On a different subject, but the same hike, here is a photo of the hunter and his dog in Smugglers Notch (the dog is in the trees):
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