Verdugo Mountains trail (from the West End). I rode this on Dec 20th 1999 while the rest of the world was Christmas shopping - I passed 1 hiker and 5 other bikers, and it was about 80 degrees in the sun.

The Verdugo mountain range is bounded by La Tuna Canyon Road and the 210 Freeway to the north, Glendale and Burbank to the south. From everywhere in Burbank you can look up and see the mountains to the north. There are several possible rides you can do, this one described is about 15 miles, with +/- 2000ft elevation gain.

You start off from Lanark St which is a steep road heading up the hill, off the north side of Glenoaks Blvd, just north west of the junction with Hollywood Way. Thomas Guide® ref pg 533 C2. It's best to park at the bottom of this steep road, unless you really want to finish the ride with a killer uphill stretch (no thanks!). This is at elevation 540 feet.
The first 10 minutes or so is a hard grind up this street, then you make a left turn onto Edmore St and continue up until you reach the trailhead, which looks like this. You're now at 740 feet.
Once you hit the trail, it continues up steeply but the views across to the San Gabriels and the Angeles National Forest make it all worthwhile.
Here is something depressing - they're building higher and higher up into the mountains - leaving big scars on the mountainside. This is the view looking down on some recent construction above Burbank.

There are a couple of places where you drop down 50 feet or so, but otherwise it's a steady climb up. Eventually you start to see the first of a little city of antennas that are located on the top of the hill. The dirt road provides access to all of them. Once you're at this point, the grade lessens and eventually flattens out. There is one antenna which is very obviously at the very top of the mountain, which is at 2540 feet.

At the top, I enjoy a little rest and sit down to admire the view. You could also, if you felt like it, stick your arms in the air and announce to the world either "I'm free" as Roger Daltrey of "The Who" did in "Quadrophenia" or maybe from a bit more recently: "I'm the King of the World" if you happen to be the director of Titanic movies. Either way, it's a great feeling. But then, over there in the distance you can also see Mount Wilson and Mount Lukens, both of which I've climbed, which are a whole lot bigger...

From this point, you can either keep on heading towards Glendale, and drop down either via Brand Park in Burbank, or onto Beaudry Drive in Glendale, or, as I did retrace my steps towards some single track. If you do continue on, you end up having to ride a long way along Glenoaks to complete the loop. I've done this a couple of times after work and ended up flying down the hill in the darkness, which is pretty exciting.

So for now I head down again, retracing my steps, until you find an unmarked single track going off to the north (right hand side).

We call this trail the "Poison Oak Trail" as it's full of the stuff, and plenty of places to fall - it's very treacherous in places. It's pretty hair-raising and I'm just hoping I'm not going to meet a hiker around the next blind corner.

Eventually you start to see, way down below, La Tuna Canyon Road, but it seems like a long way (including some uphill on which you have to push your bike) until you finally drop down to it.

You pop out, dazed and confused at this trailhead. From here, you go left (north west) until you hit the first large intersection (Roscoe Blvd), then make another left shortly after onto Glenoaks, then return to where you started. The nice thing about doing it this way is that the part on the road is pretty much all down hill. Total mileage around 15.