The Shenandoah Fall Foliage Bike Festival will not run this October, even though a cycling-event directory still shows it on the calendar for October 16 to 18, 2026. The listing carries the tag "Unconfirmed," and the organizers have said plainly that the event is finished.
That gap between the listing and the facts matters more than it sounds. A festival that filled a mid-October weekend for decades left behind a slot on the calendar and a set of expectations about what a fall ride in Staunton comes with. The roads did not go anywhere. What went away is everything that used to be arranged for riders, and that changes what October looks like for anyone who pedals around Shutterlee.
What the Organizers Actually Said
The festival's own website carries the notice. The volunteer planning committee wrote that after 34 years it had decided to stop hosting the event, in a line that reads:
"our volunteer planning committee has decided to no longer host this annual event."
The ticketing page for the 2024 edition, which ran October 18 to 20, 2024, says the festival "has run its last ride." So the 2024 weekend was the final one. The organizers' page, as captured in April 2025, points riders to two other regional rides instead.
Meanwhile the Gran Fondo Guide directory still describes an October 16 to 18, 2026 edition with distances from 9 to 100 miles and a 750-rider limit. The date is not confirmed by anyone who would be running it.
That same directory listing gives the start location as St. Paul's Church, 2000 Shutterlee Mill Road. The listing does not say which years used that start. Volunteer notes for the 2023 weekend describe a different arrangement, with Saturday starting on the north side of Staunton and heading into Rockingham County, and Sunday starting in Middlebrook with every route staying south of Staunton. The festival moved around, and Shutterlee Mill Road was one of the places it started from.
Two Days, Two Directions, Everything Provided
Reading the listing and the volunteer notes together shows how much the festival supplied. Registration bought two days of riding, an event guide with tear-out route maps and cue sheets, a large meal each day, live music, and rest stops with snacks and vehicle support from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on both riding days. A 2023 call for amateur radio volunteers asked for about 25 people on Saturday and 18 on Sunday to handle communications and safety at rest stops and difficult intersections.
The event guide covered the turns, the rest stops covered the snacks, and the vehicle support covered breakdowns, on routes that changed by day.
Without the festival, the roads around Staunton are the same, and the arrangements behind them are missing. A fall ride in Augusta County now comes down to the rider's own map, the rider's own stops, and the rider's own timing.
What Still Has a Date
The organized options that remain include rides on other months of the calendar and Wade's Mill's October festival. Here is what the research turned up.
| Ride or event | When | Where and how far | What it supports |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shenandoah Fall Foliage Bike Festival | Listed Oct. 16 to 18, 2026, not running | 9 to 100 miles per the outdated listing | Ended after 34 years |
| Lee Warren Queen City Century | Sat., June 20, 2026, already held | Starts at Sunspots Pavilion, 202 S. Lewis St., Staunton; 25, 50, 62 or 100 miles west of town | Renewing Homes of Greater Augusta |
| Valley Veterans Ride for Heroes | Sept. 6 on the organizers' 2025 page; no 2026 date confirmed | 27, 44 or 64 miles from Rockbridge Vineyards | Boulder Crest Retreat |
| Wade's Mill Apple Butter Festival | Sat., Oct. 17, 2026 | Raphine, about 20 miles south of Staunton | Free admission and parking |
The Lee Warren Queen City Century is the closest replacement in spirit. Its 2026 edition was the tenth annual, and the routes follow a clover-leaf pattern of loops west of Staunton, with a rest stop at Hebron Presbyterian Church on Hebron Road. It runs in June, though, and its listing caps participation at 200 riders. That 200-rider cap is well below the 750 the fall festival listing showed, and the century runs about four months earlier in the year.
Proceeds from the century go to Renewing Homes of Greater Augusta, which provides critical home repairs for vulnerable homeowners in Staunton, Waynesboro, and Augusta County. The Valley Veterans Ride is organized by a group of 12 VFW posts in the Shenandoah Valley, and according to one event database more than $300,000 has been donated to Boulder Crest programs. Only the 2025 date for that ride appears in the research, so it is best treated as a September event to watch for next year.
The Loop That Needs No Registration
For a rider who wants October miles without waiting for an event, the Staunton Perfect Loop is a 15-mile paved route. One route database lists it at about 24 kilometers with 255 meters of climbing, following Pleasant View, Galena, and Frog Pond Roads through gentle hills, and gives Black Dog Bikes as the start. Visit Staunton has long described the loop as leaving downtown and running through farmland north and west of the city.
The source describes gentle hills. At 15 miles, the loop is a fraction of the 100-mile top distance the festival's listing advertised.
Riders who prefer gravel have a public resource as well. Bike the Valley, a program of the Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission, publishes maps of gravel routes from 15.5 to 41 miles across Augusta County, Staunton, and Waynesboro.
One October Saturday Already Circled
The one confirmed fall date that pulls people out of town is Wade's Mill. The 30th Annual Apple Butter Festival takes place Saturday, October 17, 2026, at the mill in Raphine. Wade's Mill describes itself as Virginia's oldest continuously operating commercial grist mill, running since 1750. Glenn Wilson makes apple butter in a copper pot over an open fire, visitors can take a turn with the long paddle, and more than 40 artisans and crafters set up on the grounds. Admission and parking were free at the 2025 edition, which ran 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., so confirm this year's details before heading out.
The date falls inside the October 16 to 18 weekend that the old listing shows for the bike festival.
An earlier-year Visit Staunton fall guide cited a foliage prediction map that put the peak near Staunton in mid-October. That was a prediction for that year, not a forecast for this one. The same guide points to three places for color inside city limits or close to it. Montgomery Hall Park has hiking trails, Betsy Bell Wilderness Area has a gravel road up to two overlooks with views of Staunton from above, and tiny Landes Park has a creek and a railroad trestle worth stopping for.
The Perfect Loop and the gravel maps are there every day, and Wade's Mill has Saturday, October 17.
If an October on the Perfect Loop has you wondering what it would be like to be closer to these roads, Nest Realty - Shenandoah Valley can show you Shutterlee and the other Staunton-area neighborhoods along them. Find Your Shenandoah Valley Home.
