CLAYOQUOT ISLAND, British Columbia, March 3 (UPI) — The ashes of a beloved Canadian biker were found on a local beach after repeated attempts to send them out to sea.
Dave Watson told the CBC that he discovered a bottle containing the remains of Hugh Robert Nisbet known as “Biker Bob” on Clayoquot Island about a week after they had been cast into the Pacific Ocean for the second time.
“I was coming down the beach on the ATV…noticed a bottle with a message in it, picked it up and realized it was Biker Bob,” Watson said. “I heard the story of him and just put two and two together. I thought it was pretty neat.”
Nisbet’s widow, Maudine Previl, initially looked to honor her husband, who died in a motorcycle accident at age 71, by sending his ashes off to sea in November 2015. But her attempt was ultimately unsuccessful when Nisbet’s dog repeatedly brought the bottle back to shore.
A few days later, 29-year-old Justin Bevis found the bottle on the beach. After reading a message inside that read “If you find me turn me loose,” he shared a ceremonial beer with the ashes before tossing the bottle back into the ocean.
The bottle soon returned to the shores of Canada in late February, when a Caleb Harding and his girlfriend Bethany James discovered it on China Beach.
“I would just like his friends or family to know that he is still on his journey, that he’s in good hands until we put him back in the ocean, and I just want them to know that he’s not caught up in some rocks somewhere that he’s still traveling, still seeing new things,” Harding said before sending the bottle back off to sea.
Watson, a biker himself, said he plans to take the ashes out for a ride on his Harley and then make sure that Nisbet’s journey finally takes him outside Canada as the most recent carrier of Biker Bob’s legacy.
“We’ll take him a mile offshore so he’ll be good and free then,” he said. “He could head far north. Maybe the next time he’s found is in Alaska.”
