We kicked off the event with a ceremonial start, welcoming hikers and thanking everyone for supporting the Urban Ecology Center. We were blown away by those of you who raised funds for the Urban Ecology Center through your personal fundraising pages. Thank you for this incredible support! I had the pleasure of announcing our top fundraising individuals and our top fundraising team.

Our top, non-staff/board fundraiser was Miles Borghgraef, Chef de Cuisine at Lake Park Bistro.

We had 24 teams total and our top fundraising team was Bartolotta's Lake Park Bistro staff!

Through the combined efforts of all of our hikers and some generous matching donors, over $30,000 was raised! I am so humbled by the generosity of our participants and their friends and family! HKE MKE raised important funds to support the Urban Ecology Center's programming.

After the ceremony and a brief warm up session with Jeff Winzenried of Monkey Bar Gym, the hike began with a bagpiper leading the way.

All day long I heard hikers talking about how much fun they were having and how they were discovering new natural areas that they didn't know about before!

Our route included activity stops including Games in Gordon, Meet the River Revitalization Foundation (RRF), Creation Station, and Spot the Bird. Take a look at how much fun people had at each stop:

Lots of hikers participated in our "pics from the path" activity and shared photos to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

We also had fantastic volunteers helping to guide hikers along the route, including 18 Bartolotta's staff members.

Thank you for joining us for a beautiful day in urban nature and for hiking with us!

Thank you sponsors!