St. Patrick's Day - A Caching Event for R-L Painter

I met Lars's geocaching name back in the winter/early spring of 2011 and have always wanted to meet R-L Painter in person.  One of my friends at the time published a cache at the Lacey Transit Center late winter/early spring and we waited off in the distance to see who would be show up first for an FTF.  We thought it might be him but we weren't sure.  Because it was just getting into spring, it was still dark at around 5-6 p.m. Like creepers, we watched.  Eventually he found it and we walked over and introduced ourselves.  Lars said he has been seeing our names on caches throughout Thurston county lately.  I told him I began caching July 2010 and I have found just under 200 caches.

Over the years we would run into him on FTF's and wondered how he got there way before we did.  For example, a cache would publish in Rainier, I live in Rainier, as soon as I got the notification I was out the door, with or without shoes and I had less than five miles to drive.  Lars lives in Lacey off of Ruddell Road which is about 13 miles away.  How in the world did he almost beat me here?  Later we found out he lives for FTF's and somehow his notifications were quicker than ours and he had a few minutes head start.  I thought everyone got the same amount of time on FTFs?  Maybe not.

On a few occasions Bob, Bev and I would meet up with him and cache.  It was usually locally.  I remember a time we accidently ran into him, his granddaughter and wife on the Yelm-Tenino trail near McIntosh Lake and we walked down the trail towards Tenino picking up caches along the way.  I checked up on the ones I placed for mom.  Mine was more of a maintenance run than finding caches.  It was a fun few hours chatting with Lars and his family.  We would run into him at cache machines and local events.  It was always fun to see his familiar face and hear his caching stories.

I found out around the same time my 10,000th milestone was published in the FTF magazine that Lars's FTF milestone was also published.  He saw my post on Facebook and he said he had an extra copy and wanted to know if I wanted it.  I told him sure!  I headed over to his house and he greeted me at the door.  We chatted for a few minutes, he handed me the magazine and I thanked him.  I handed him one of my pathtags just so I had something to give him.  I told him I would see him around which I did a few times after the visit to his house.

Then I heard the horrible news, Lars had stomach cancer and it had progressed aggressively.  He had been going to therapy but still geocaching and hanging out with his family as much as he could.  His last big adventure was with Bob and Bev during the 2016 Auburn Coin Challenge.  Before that he, Bob and Bev had completed the Rainier100 Geotour.  Lars found a few more here and there and his last logged find was April 18, 2017, You Gotta Gnome What You're Looking For (GC742MG).  In those 11 years he found 8,902 caches and had 589 FTF's.

Lars passed away on May 10, 2017 and he will not be forgotten.

His wife, Lynn decided to have an event, Celebrate R-L Painter (GC7HE32), to remember Lars and his love for geocaching.  She had it on his birthday almost a year after he passed at Dirty Dave's.  Lars had been caching for 11 years and amassed a lot of swag that Lynn wanted to raffle to his fellow caching community.  His hides were also up for transfer.  I got a few of his containers and pathtags as well as one of his caches in Yelm, Bypass....To Nowhere...(GC2HFCM).  It was a nice event and many people came.  We shared stories about Lars, ate pizza and thanked Lynn for hosting an event in his honor especially on his birthday.

It's hard when you lose a member of your geocaching family.  The events and the random meetings will never be the same.  I am glad I got to meet Lars over seven years ago.  The competitions to get to the FTF's, the stories, the moments shared and the caches found with Lars will always be with us every time we go out geocaching.

Next Adventure:  Easter Sunday