Author Archive

Posted on December 29, 2009 - by Editor

Happy New Year from Blackhawk on the River

Make a Smilebox greeting

Posted on December 28, 2009 - by Editor

Horse Drawn Sleigh Rides

Dashing through the snow until January 2nd! Don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity to enjoy the beautiful snow-scapes while being pulled along by a horse-drawn sleigh. Wrap yourself in warm blankets and enjoy hot cocoa on this one-of-a-kind tour.

To schedule your sleigh ride, please call Jil at (208) 630-4348.

Posted on January 20, 2009 - by Editor

Nordic Ski Day. Event Recap From Blackhawk

Guests of Blackhawk on the River took to the Nordic trails on a perfect winter day in McCall on Saturday, January 17th to enjoy the 12 km of trails groomed to perfection. Skate skiers, Nordic skiers and snowshoers alike came out to Blackhawk for an afternoon of winter fun and hot chocolate!

Don’t miss your opportunity to try out the Blackhawk Nordic trails on February 21st when Blackhawk will host the McCall Nordic Marathon and Ski-in / Ski-out Farmers Market. For more information, call (208) 630-5070.

 

Posted on January 20, 2009 - by Editor

Dog Sledding Heaven. Event Recap, Photos

Blackhawk’s Nordic trails were transformed into a dog sledding heaven on Saturday, January 10th when Carol Riehle and her dogs, Mambo, Keenu, Kobuk and Kiya, visited Blackhawk. Carol had been mushing for about 5 years and shared her insight with Blackhawk guests. After getting the facts about the different types of dog teams, sleds and hitches, event-goers were treated to an amazing display of speed and snow as the team took to the trails.

Carol will be back at Blackhawk on February 28th. If you would like to attend this event, call (208) 630-4348 to RSVP!

 

Posted on December 19, 2008 - by Editor

Blackhawk Newsletter December 2008

Enjoy reading our newsletter and learning more about Blackhawk on the River. Blackhawk offers a wonderful sanctuary and central location to enjoy skiing, bird watching, or just taking in an après ski beverage at your favorite restaurant. Watch our video that highlights a recent day of skiing and relaxation in McCall, then read on for more about the exciting events occurring at Blackhawk. To learn more about Blackhawk, please give us a call or email for a personal tour of the property. Contact mckenzie@blackhawkontheriver.com or call 208.630.5070. Blackhawk. For generations to come.

Be sure to contact us for more information about Blackhawk or to book a winter Discovery Weekend.

Posted on November 13, 2008 - by Editor

Greetings from McCall, Idaho and Blackhawk on the River!

For those of you who have not met me, my name is Sima Muroff, managing partner and CEO of Blackhawk Partners, LLC.

I wanted to formally introduce myself and say welcome from my family and our team at Blackhawk on the River.  Offering riverfront real estate along the Payette River in McCall, Idaho.

I am proud to be not only the developer of Blackhawk, but also a homeowner. This is the place my wife and I have been searching for to raise our three sons and create lifelong memories that will transcend generations. I hope that you will find the same in Blackhawk on the River.

Posted on November 13, 2008 - by Editor

Homeowner Bill West: Blackhawk "Felt Right" From the Beginning

Bill West, homeowner and full-time resident of Blackhawk on the River shares why he says Blackhawk was the right real estate descision.

After looking at properties in Arizona, Colorado, Montana and Wyoming, Mr. West visited McCall, Idaho and knew he had found what he had been searching for. According to Mr. West, “McCall is a friendly resort town that is not overcrowded or too ‘touristy.’ It has great local health care resources and is within reasonable proximity to a major airport and ‘big city.’”

But the most important appeal…the easy access to outdoor recreation with the benefit of having two major ski resorts nearby. As an avid fly fisherman, hiker and skier, Mr. West says McCall and Blackhawk on the River had everything he was looking for.

“The concept of Blackhawk is what appealed to me most.” The focus on outdoor recreation and the commitment to open space including the lakes, the river and the common areas between just “felt right” from the beginning.

Blackhawk is a conservation-oriented community situated along five miles of pristine waterfront property in McCall, Idaho.  Please contact Mckenzie for information and a tour.  Email her at mckenzie@blackhawkontheriver.com

Posted on November 12, 2008 - by Editor

Find Your Own Private Idaho, McCall Featured in Sunset Magazine

FIND YOUR OWN PRIVATE IDAHO
Move over, Sun Valley. McCall is the new great adventure town
by Laura Stavoe

Steam hovers over the large, transparent pool at Burgdorf Hot Springs, 32 miles north of McCall. It’s a rainy morning, and we’ve opted for these primitive springs as the perfect way to kick off our vacation. We’ve driven from town into the mountains, past quiet lakes still surrounded by snow, following rivers and creeks through corridors of spruce and fir to a lonely dirt lot. A wild-breed turkey has waddled over to greet us, followed by a caretaker who sports a tangled gray beard down to his sternum.

My twin 12-year-old sons, Dylan and Gabe, and my husband, John, and I are the only ones here. We soak in a vintage Idaho scene: horses grazing in the meadow beneath soft rain, cabins leaning into the tall grasses, the northern Rockies surrounding all of it. The boys take turns balancing, surfer-style, on an old kayak someone left at water’s edge, as John and I slowly sink into water heated by the earth to 113°, thinking, Yes, this is exactly the kind of luxury we had in mind.

I let out a sigh of relief. Because — and here is my confession — I expected, on this trip back to McCall, to be disappointed. Having read the press about McCall’s big growth spurt brought on by the opening of Tamarack Resort in 2004, I expected to find my old beloved mountain town, two hours north of Boise, transformed into something fancy and generic. Despite Tamarack’s recent financial woes, its development opened the flood-gates to sushi, spas, better cell phone coverage, and all the trappings of every other mountain resort town. I wondered and worried that McCall might not still be McCall.

THE LAKE, AND A RACE TO REMEMBER

I did not fall immediately in love with Idaho when I moved to Boise from Southern California in 1990, but my first visit to McCall sped up the process considerably. I had entered the McCall Mountain Triathlon, and as a friend and I made the drive from Boise into Idaho’s central mountains, she prepped me, “It’s gorgeous — the forest, the lake, the mountains — all of it … ”

The race was small town. A hundred or so athletes picked up packets at Lardo’s, a bar and burger joint. Just after dawn, we ran into the icy water of Payette Lake and submerged ourselves in beauty. Each time I reached for a breath, the sight of spectacular granite peaks over the water surprised me. The cycling leg took us along a ponderosa-lined road where I spotted whitetail deer among the trees. Then we ran on dirt trails until the course looped back toward town, where locals cheered us on from the backs of pickups. I didn’t win. (Probably all that nature-ogling.) But my friend was right. I was smitten.

Eighteen years, two Idaho native sons, and dozens of McCall visits later, it’s clear it was no passing crush.

The skies have cleared, and the boys and John and I lounge on the patio of Bistro 45, a locals’ wine bar and cafe with a super-casual vibe and retro board games for the borrowing. It’s one of a handful of restaurants in McCall’s tiny downtown, a cluster of shops and hotels right on the lake and less than 2 miles from spectacular Ponderosa State Park. If anything has changed downtown, I think to myself, it’s so subtle I don’t mind at all.

When our sandwiches come, Gabe, who has heard my triathlon story a hundred times, suggests we do our own version. “Burgdorf counts as the swim,” he says.

John says, “We should take the chairlift and bike down Tamarack mountain.” I’m in. We’ll top it all off with a river paddle, I suggest, as the third leg of the race. No one argues. We all carbo-load on grilled panini.

THE MOUNTAIN

The next day, we check into a cottage at Tamarack Resort. We’re here to find out what The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have been so excited about, why Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf were inspired to pony up funds for a planned hotel here, and — more recently — how the ambitious resort has had to scale back its plans in the face of a hurting economy. We stand atop Tamarack mountain, feeling out of our league. The steep slope disappears into a pile of boulders and then who knows what. John asks the question on all of our minds. “People ride down this?”

A man pedals past us and then drops off the ledge. The wheels of his muddy bike hopscotch from one boulder to the next. John reaches in his pocket for the trail map. At dinner the night before, we were certain we were a “blue” family — not mountain-biking experts, but relatively fit, and gutsy, Idahoans. Certainly we could handle blue-designated terrain. Now John points us to the “greenie” run, and we follow. I make generous use of my brakes.

Waterfalls rush down gulches lined with spruce, fir, and the signature tamarack, and the air is pungent with the scent of recently melted earth. As I careen down the trail, much of the scenery turns into a vibrating blur, but up ahead the boys wait for me where the forest opens. On one side rises the incline of the Payette River Range. On the other lie the curve of Lake Cascade and the Salmon River Mountains beyond the valley. I’m reminded of how huge this rugged country is, and how many mountains are beyond the ones I can see.

That night we dine on seared elk medallions and delicate scallops at Morels Restaurant — it’s hard to object to fancy new restaurants where the food is as good as this — then soak our battered muscles in the hot tub on our resort cabin’s deck while staring up at the crisp starlight, grateful for clear skies. In the mountains, you never know what season June will be, and tomorrow we take to the river for our final leg of the “race.”

THE RIVER

Thousands of miles of whitewater tumble down from the central Idaho mountains, so it’s no wonder my boys have ridden far more rapids than roller coasters in their lifetime. Today Dylan sits in front of me in a double ducky (an inflatable kayak for two) on our favorite day trip, the Cabarton stretch of the Payette River. We love this stretch because the current slips away from the road and into lush forest, offering a sense of solitude that’s rare on a day trip anywhere.

On past Cabarton trips, Dylan has been in the raft, and we’re both aware that just around the next bend is Trestle, the longest class III rapid of the trip. As we curve around the canyon wall, the railroad bridge spanning the river comes into view and the current quickens. “Hole is on the left?” Dylan asks in a dry, whispery voice.

“You paddle hard, and I’ll steer,” I answer. There’s a glassy pool after the rapid, but June is not ideal swimming weather.

For a moment, the calm clarity of our plan is lost in the chaotic force of white-water and adrenaline, but then Dylan plunges his paddle into each huge wave just as it’s about to overwhelm us, as if he were a pro. I’m relieved when, out of the corner of my eye, I see the gaping reversal slip by.

“That was huge,” Dylan yells. And we laugh as the final waves lift and then release us. We all pull onto a sandy beach where we rehash our various versions of surviving the Trestle Rapid.

After our picnic on the shore, the boys toss stones in the river, and John and I lie on warm boulders looking for eagles and listening to the rush of the rapid. I recall the post-race high I used to feel back during my triathlon days, thinking, This beats it by a mile. An orange raft from the outfitting company rounds the corner carrying another family. We wave to one another as boaters always do on rivers — kids, parents, river guide — all of us wearing that particular aren’t-we-so-lucky-to-be-here grin. And I notice that even though McCall now has fancy restaurants and spas and plush hotel rooms with lake views, I’m happy to share this big, wild place that really does still feel like home.

[From Sunset Magazine, June 2008]

Posted on November 11, 2008 - by Editor

Water Treatment Plant Utilizes Trees To Aid Environment

The Blackhawk on the River water treatment facility passed its annual inspection from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality in October validating its efforts to maintain an environmentally friendly alternative for community utilities. “With city water and sewer service rates on the rise, we are proud to provide a reliable service to our owners free from the rate fluctuations many residents of Valley and Adams Counties are seeing,” said Sima Muroff, CEO of Blackhawk on the River.

In addition to the approval, the DEQ is working with Blackhawk and West Mountain Water and Sewer to solidify another 5-year permit which would allow for research of new green construction techniques to utilize in an expansion of the facility if additional hook-ups are needed in the future.

The water treatment facility at Blackhawk on the River was designed with the goal of limiting the impact on the environment while providing a reliable service to homeowners at Blackhawk. Lance Daniels of West Mountain Water and Sewer Inc. explains that that this facility utilizes a “tree farm” concept that enables water from the treatment center to be put to beneficial use.

Waste water contains high levels of nitrates and phosphates that if released into the environment can cause algae and other plant growth to generate which ultimately can increase natural water temperatures and negatively impact habitat for fish and other wildlife. To ensure nitrates and phosphates are extracted from the water, young pine trees have been planted to filter out these contaminants. In the establishment phase of its growth cycle, young pine trees extract nutrients from the ground water at a high rate and in turn, aid in cleansing the water so it does not negatively impact the environment.

Trees will be harvested every two to five years and replaced by new young trees to ensure a consistent level of nitrate and phosphate extraction from the water. Harvested trees will then be reclaimed for landscaping and transplanted around the Blackhawk community.

“This is yet another example of the stewardship principles utilized at the Blackhawk Community,” says Muroff. “We are choosing to reevaluate our treatment options and working with West Mountain Water and Sewer Inc. for future expansion and researching hydrogen and sustainable clean water technologies.”

Posted on November 10, 2008 - by Editor

Winter Cheer At Blackhawk

The mountains here in McCall have gotten their first taste of flakes in recent weeks. The early dustings quietly suggest of another bountiful snow season. Here at Blackhawk we are excited to welcome the coming holiday season. The skiing at Brundage and Tamarack will be fresh and breezy, families will be getting together, and we look forward to putting on that extra five pounds during all the holiday festivities.

Enjoy this video featuring a slice of our winter wonderland here at Blackhawk on the River. Be sure to contact us for more information about Blackhawk or to book a winter Discovery Weekend.