Explore the old leopard cave in Shilaogong Village
On the afternoon of February 17th, I invited my riders to ride into the mountain together, gathered at the Convention and Exhibition Center Square at 1:30, passed through Gaocun, Miaokou, and Qianzui, and prepared to ride to Shilaogong Village, and went on an expedition to the Old Leopard Cave that had not been successfully explored several times - is there anything that can be called the iconic natural landscape of the Old Leopard Cave like the Lion Cave and the White Tiger Rock Temple!
Most of the roads to Shilaogong Village are in the ravines because of the mountain's position, twisting and turning. Some of the sections washed away by last summer's floods, which have not yet been overhauled, are temporary gravel pavements. However, the road from Shilaogong Village to Lingshan was expanded and rebuilt last spring, and the road surface was smooth and the road condition was very good! Only to the steep slope near the old leopard cave, it was affected by last year's major flood, destroying more than ten meters, slightly bumpy.
Turned a steep bend, came to the path of the upper leopard cave, the beginning of the mountain path of the upper leopard cave, but also because the road construction was destroyed and it was difficult to climb, and it was impossible to find a suitable landing point for the time being. The original is not very conspicuous, easy to be ignored by people, and it is not easy to be found! If I hadn't been here once in the past and knew the specific place, I would have been really at a loss.
It was a little cold in the mountain canyon, so we took off our smocks when we rode into the mountains and rolled them over and put them back on. Finding a place with a few miscellaneous stones, a few of us dragged the bushes, helped each other, climbed up this small "cliff" blocking the road, stepped on the irregular simple stone steps with artificial traces, one foot deep and one foot shallow, along the sheep's gut path on the edge of the steep cliff, and turned around in fear, and it was difficult to see the dark opening. When I wanted to take a picture, I found that I had forgotten my phone in my bike bag down the hill when I was changing clothes down the hill! Hey, another trip in vain, can only put the scenery inside the cave outside the cave, see in the eyes to tell the friend to share.
At the entrance of the cave, there was a wall of rubble, a simple wooden door hung with an unlocked yellow lock, and a small bed with scattered bedding was piled up on the side, covered with a thick layer of dust and mold. Although there are two hanging energy-saving light bulbs, but the power supply or switch cannot be found. It seems that no one has lived here for a long time.
Holding up flashlights, we looked up and down, left and right, observing the colorful stalagmites on the walls of the cave top of the cave, hoping to find the leopard-shaped landscape that could make the cave call the Old Leopard Cave. The width of the cave is 2 or 3 meters, and the height of the cave varies from 3 meters to 5 meters, and it is in the shape of an inverted heart [heart]. After walking about twenty or thirty meters, at the end of the cave there was an offering table covered with a yellow satin, there was an incense burner candlestick on the tabletop, and the melting rock at the top of the cave wall was smoked black and shiny. A few of us looked left and right, used our imagination to the fullest extent, and did not find any rocks or melted rocks, there was a slight image of a leopard!
There is a bend at the bottom of the cave to the left, and there is a thick soil layer of more than half a meter at the bottom of the cave, which is more than ten meters deep, with different widths and narrownesses, about four or five meters at the widest point, and the height of the cave is also three to five meters. Although there are several traces of melted stalagmites that have been artificially knocked out, no leopard-like images have been found.
We were a little sorry and ready to get out of the hole. As I walked outside, I turned back and used the flashlight to look at it again, for fear of missing it by mistake. But in the end, the hole came out, and there was no discovery. As they descended the mountain, the two riders circled several tens of meters laterally along the mountainside and descended the hill from another gravel ditch. I returned from the same path that someone had stepped out of. As a result, we basically reached the place where we parked our bikes at the bottom of the hill at the same time.
I took my phone out of my bag, took a picture of my surroundings, and at about 4 p.m., set foot on the return journey with my riders. Outside the village of Shi Laogong, I met a tricycle, and an elderly couple was dressed as a broken branch of a rafter. I said hello and inquired about the origin of the name of the old leopard cave, but I shook my head and didn't know why I came. I had to give up!
And the riders then ride out of the mountain downhill, all the way to the wind! Arrived at home at 5:30.
The round trip takes four hours, totaling 55 kilometers.
