Direct piste Agdz > Skoura via Bou Skour mine + Route MZ1
 

I got told by a local about a commonly used MTB tours piste between Agdz and Skoura via Bou Skour mine (so, east of the Draa). I glanced at the tracklog on his computer. More or less 'question mark' shape.
There a YT video of a Merc campervan rattling along so it can't be that obscure, but I struggle to trace it on Google or Bing aerial maps from the last village north of Agdz to the mine track.
Perhaps it will all be obvious when I get there, northbound, but anyone know any more?
Thanks.

OSM has a maze of footpaths in that area and several unconnected sections of piste.

I have a waypoint saved at Bou Skoura (N30° 55.372' W6° 16.848') saying interesting piste south but haven't been back to have a look yet. If its a route used by the Roc Du Maroc MTB event then I have a friend who works for them who may have more details

Yes, looked at OSM and all the rest - a maze.
Must be fairly obvious once you know where.

I’ve messaged my friend but he’s on the road back to Morocco at the moment so might not reply for a while


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Haven’t done the piste myself, but perhaps try yandex maps? They have their own sat imagery, sometimes better quality than google or bing. I've had a quick look and there’s lots of tracks visible in that area. yandex maps

Some toponyms may be in Russian or in Arabic, but most are in English. Searching places by an English-spelled name should work but is sometimes tricky.

Heard back from my friend it’s not a route he knows unfortunately


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Loads of tracks on Yandex sat, too.
Just a matter of working out which ones to follow.
It's only about 20km

Tried to follow this route. Turned off the tar just after Afellendra village north of Adgz, over a Draa bridge and along an unusually good but little used track into the hills. No vehicle tracks to speak of but there have been storms.
Tracks came and went on Garmin Topo and OSM maps.
All good – classic rugged Sarhro scenery – until just after a road camp (3 blokes, bulldozer, tent) 27kms in at a 1600-m pass which looked like the high point.
Beyond the camp the track got rougher and overgrown and within a few 100 metres petered out altogether, but with piles of rocks possibly indicating where a new descent might be cut.
Not even a mule track continued. All cross country. From here about 18kms to Bou Skour.
By now the skies were turning black and rumbling so I didn’t want to hang around much longer.

Hard to think MTBs come this way (as I was told) as they usually have a sag wagon.
But the route did conform to the ‘question mark’ profile mentioned earlier in this thread.
It has the feeling a new or second attempt at an unfinished track which is slowly creeping north over the jebel to link up near Bou Skour.
On the way back (there was snow towards MH15) I passed a dump truck bringing up rubble, so something must be happening.
That Merc van video (mentioned earlier) must have been on something else. Probably the classic Sarhro crossing north of Nekob (soon to be sealed).

Coming back though the northern outskirts of Adgz, streams were now sweeping across the road. People were out watching. I thought I’d gone another way or it was some dam release, but it was flowing right among the lanes.
Turned out, heading west out of Agdz towards Tasla palmerie, a sizeable river was running down this usually dry valley. Never seen that before here. Again, villagers watching.
Must have been the same flood which swept into north of Adgz between me going up and coming back.

Something for the weekend
 

I happened to look again at this route and either I missed it, or now I see (most clearly on Apple Maps) tracks leading north to Bou Skour mine just a few 100 metres north of the final yellow switchback before the 1600m point where my track from Agdz ended in 2019. A very thin track (red) may even actually connect them.
Prospecting tracks? You can see a white hut or vehicle? on Apple.
The second image is Google zoomed out

More confirmation (3rd image below) from local mining sources that less than 2km over the watershed links to northside prospecting tracks going NNE to BouSkour or, with a bit more winding around, NNW towards Skoura.
Both link up with MH23 from Nekob.

MZ1 Jebel Saghro
 

Still not tried this link route over from Agdz, but now that the once popular MH4 over Jebel Saghro is fully sealed, I think what i now will call MZ1 is set to be the new classic crossing of the massif from Nekob to Skoura (~100km; 95% piste).

I’ve just ridden it a 3rd time, a perfect mountain piste that can be done in any vehicle, capped off with some tasty tafernoute bread at the Inov roadhouse.

Route description and more pics:
https://sahara-overland.com/2021/10/...ghro-crossing/

Tried this route again today but I think I may have missed my chance.

The 'unusually good but little used track into the hills' is no longer unusually good; now just a moto trail serving a couple of remote small holdings. I got to a goat pound, the last dwelling (N30.80502° W6.37686°) by which point it looked like no vehicle had gone beyond for ages, unlike in 2019.

Whatever they were doing up there - prospecting? - they've stopped, and if the track has become disused on this side, it won't be any different on the other side until nearer Bou Skour.
I also noticed it's a 200-m climb in the 2km of the red link track (sat image). If it averages 1:10, it's probably a lot more at times.

So I think I will take my exploring somewhere else. Loads of new-to-me tracks to check out on J Saro.

Fyi MZ1 has become really quite sandy on the axle-churned switchbacks since I first did in 2019. Only a problem for motos with road tyres.
When I was there last month I noticed regular piles of darker dirt along the track's edges at the eastern end, west of the palm gorge. Something may be afoot.

Pics: Descent to last dwelling;
Beyond last dwelling

ground truth
 

Tell me about it. I've just set about properly checking/adding the tracks of my M4 routes to OSM, starting on Saghro. I've seen these unconnected scraps all over and which really ruin a map as, of course, they don't make sense unless you believe in magic carpets.
I think many are mislabeled game trails which, as we know, come and go.

The culprit on Saghro seems to be an Austrian OSM-er who's been merrily adding them for years (as well as real data, tbh), using in places some sort of LIDAR-aided vision to discern 'paths' where often nothing is visible on aerial. Often his unconnected paths get an 'Issue' warning/label, rightly saying path must be part of a network. Worst still, looking in the High Atlas, he's not the only one adding what they think is a 45-m path miles from anywhere.

And yet there are loads of actual paths/tracks visible on aerial in Saghro that can't have cropped up overnight that he's ignored.
Hopefully he's had his fun in Morocco and found another hobby.