Bike Trip 2024 - The Paul Bunyan Trail

 

Mrs. WW and I are on the bike trail again this year.  Last year we did the longest rail trail in the US, the Katy Trail.  This year we are on the longest paved rail trail, the Paul Bunyan Trail in Minnesota  (the Katy Trail is crushed limestone).  The map above isn't very clear, but if you click on it you should get a larger, more readable version.

We start a little south of Brainerd at Crow Wing State Park.  We then work our way north.  Along the way we'll take a two day detour back and forth on the Heartland Trail.  We finish up at Lake Bemidji.  We're in no rush, doing 30-35 miles per day and the total ride will be about 185 miles.

I looked to see if there were any major leaguers from the cities we ride through.  I didn't find many.  This is Minnesota, which has a pretty short baseball season compared to some west coast and southern areas.  Also the towns we are going through are pretty small.

I found three players from the towns and they were from the two biggest towns, Brainerd near the start of the trail and Bemidji at the end.

Pitcher Todd Revering is from Brainerd.  He played in two games for the A's in 1992

Another pitcher, Kerry Taylor, is from Bemidji.  He was with the Padres for 37 games in 1993 and 1994.

The third and final player is another pitcher from Bemidji, Bryan Hickerson.  He had the longest career of the three, making 209 appearances between 1991 and 1995.  He spent time with three teams, breaking in with the Giants and ending up in Colorado.  In between those two, he spent two-thirds of the 1995 season with...

... the Cubs!  This card from the 1995 Illinois State Police set is the only card of Hickerson with the Cubs according to the TCDB.

His record with the Cubs wasn't great.  He was 2-3 with an ERA of 6.82 over 38 games.  He was traded to the Rockies on July 31.  In return the Cubs got "future consideration" or the classic "player to be named later."  I searched through the Cubs transaction after that to see who they got eventually.  I couldn't find any transaction with the Rockies.  Is it possible they got nothing in return?  With the Rockies he had an ERA of 11.88 over 18 games, so maybe they felt the Cubs deserved nothing in return.

Speaking of return, we'll be back home on the 21st and I'll probably start posting again on the 22nd or 23rd.