McGown is such a well known peak in the Sawtooths and I really wanted to climb it as fast as I could. Everything went smoothly, although I had a hard time finding the secondary trail around the 4 mile mark. I was following my GPS and just bushwacked for a few hundred feet until I found the trail and from there everything continued to go smoothly although the trail can be hard to follow. I got a real boost of energy once I got off the trail and into the McGown Cirque, it almost felt wrong to keep going without exploring the area more. The meadows and lakes are beautiful and refreshing. Going up the cirque all the way and climbing up the ridge has some exciting terrain that is a little slick but fun to climb through. I took about a 15 minute break once I got to the top and signed the summit register before plowing my way back down to the lakes. From there I let loose and had gravity carry me down all the way, until the last two miles where I hit a wall and pushed through back to Stanley lake.