Verdugo Mountains trail (East). I rode this on May 26th 2000 on a warmish Friday afternoon - and saw not a soul until the last 10 minutes on the mountain.

This ride took me exactly two hours. I know that because I got back to "All Things Considered" on National Public Radio exactly where I left off in my car, and they repeat the show on a 2 hour cycle. This ride is an uphill all the way, then pretty much downhill all the way back ride, which is really the best way to do things.

You start in Glendale - drive north from the 134 up Glendale Av towards the mountains, then branch off on La Canãda Drive to the left, then turn left again at a light on Country Club Drive towards the Oakmont Country Club. I park in the street roughly opposite the club. Thomas Guide® ref pg 534 G5.

You set off up Beaudry Drive opposite the Country Club and within a half mile, come to the trail head on the left hand side, just as the road makes a bend to the right and gets steep. It looks like this from the street. To the left of the trailhead is the inevitable concrete flood channel.
Once you get up the first bit of the trail just off the road, you see a gate like this. The first few hundred feet are flat and you pass the flood channel to your left complete with fierce "no trespassing" notices.
	After a short steep climb, you come to a fork where you have a choice - either left or right. I've hiked both up, and rode down both, and the left way is sufficiently steep and treachorous that I've not attempted to ride it up. The right fork is also considerably shadier which is a nice bonus.
So now you're into the main meat of the ascent and it's just a grind up, none too hideously steep, but it's unrelenting. I ran over the tail of this snake, which fortunately didn't come after me.....it has the diamonds on his back, but didn't rattle at me. Up up up.... and it eventually starts to get less steep. You pass a trail to the left, which is the top of the left branch you could have taken below. This goes close by the group of tall skinny red and white antennas you can see from below.
	After this junction, the going gets considerably easier - it flattens out quite a bit, and even goes down a little at one point. A couple of miles furth and some more gentle climbing, and you've reached the highest point of the trail, which is here by this antenna.

From this point, you continue on the trail another few feet and, on this occasion, I took the trail down the back towards La Crescenta, which branches off to the right. The descent is easy going (I rode up this way once and it wasn't too bad). I think vehicles that need to visit the top of the mountain come up this way, as the trail is even quite smooth in places.

Towards the bottom I came across a clutch of beehives. Swarms of bees everywhere. Didn't want to linger too long around them!!
Shortly after this, the trail drops steeply down to an old metalled road, complete with weeds growing out of it, and you end up at the trailhead, where La Tuna Canyon Rd meets the 210 freeway.

From here onwards, you're just getting back to where you started on roads. You get onto La Tuna Canyon road, and head to the right, under the freeway bridge. It was really windy here when I did this. It's a little uphill the first few hundred feet, then you're descending downhill pretty fast. You pass the Verdugo Hills Golf Club on the left and continue on veering slightly to the right onto Honolulu Av. This turns into Pennsylvania on another veer to the right, and then you take a right turn on La Crescenta. After a light at a street named "Shirlyjean" there's a road (with great wildflowers at its entrance) which is the back way onto Country Club Drive. You go over a bridge - another flood channel - and then make a short sharp climb to a stop sign, at which you turn left. It's then a five minute coast downhill to where you started.