Vancouver man experiences Okanagan wildfire season on cross-country coffee bike tour
Published 1:35 pm Wednesday, September 23, 2026
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Most Lower Mainland residents are somewhat insulated from the dangers and anxieties of wildfire season that most Okanagan residents have come to accept as a reality.
When Vlad Priadko decided to take the mobile aspect of his mobile Vancouver coffee shop to another level by trekking across the country and back with it, the journey included a first-hand reckoning with that reality.
Priadko is the owner of Coffee Bike World, which he started in Vancouver and grew into an international mobile espresso bike franchise.
Last year, the entrepreneur brought his espresso bar on wheels to an episode of the popular Canadian reality TV show Dragons’ Den, which resulted in a $150,000 handshake with Dragon investor Arlene Dickinson. Priadko has still gone on to sell more than 40 coffee bike units under his unique franchising model that gives franchisees the freedom to make their business their own.
In mid-June, Priadko embarked on a 90-day cross-continental journey through Canada and the U.S., to show just how mobile his coffee shop could be.
After being denied entry at the U.S. border, his team pivoted to a coast-to-coast Canada trip instead.
For weeks on end, Priadko and his team hopped from location to location, towing the coffee e-bike in a trailer by car on highways before unloading and riding the bike through the towns and cities they reached.
It was Aug. 9 when Priadko and his team made it back to B.C. By that point, the Bradley Creek wildfire near Vernon had been burning for more than a week, and the entire municipality of Summerland had been evacuated by the Bald Range wildfire two nights before.
Priadko said his route wasn’t altered by the wildfires, but the smoke made for a challenge.
In Merritt, Priadko and his team “couldn’t even see the road because of the smoke, and breathing was pretty challenging as well,” he said. “Even breathing while driving inside the car was quite hard from Kelowna to Hope.”
The experience had him feeling for the people affected more directly by the blazes.
“I cannot even imagine how bad people were feeling at the actual wildfire places,” Priadko said, adding the air he breathed while on out on the coffee bike smelled “burnt.”
All in all, Priadko got more than he bargained for when he finished his coast-to-coast and back tour of Canada through a province that had just declared a state of emergency due to wildfires.
He said the most important part of the experience was the people he met along the way, and how kind and supportive they were no matter which province he was in.
“People are great everywhere,” he said. “This trip really opened my mind to the fact that it’s so easy to start a conversation with absolutely anyone around you, 99 per cent of the people are actually waiting for someone to talk to them and they’re happy to join the conversation, to brainstorm, to share some ideas, to just give a little bit of cheer or support. That was probably the most amazing part of this trip.”