Five Hours North: A Memoir of Outlaw Farming on California's Cannabis Frontier

The colorful true adventures of an unexpected “pot-star” turned cannabis CEO in the new Wild West of California’s green rush.

Don’t give anyone your real name.
Never say anything to your loved ones.
Always have a full tank of gas, a jump starter, and an alibi.

The year is 2008, and the green rush is taking root in Humboldt County, California. Born and raised in this “Emerald Triangle” famous for its natural beauty and perfect cannabis-growing conditions, Ty Kearns wants no part of it. He has seen too many friends and acquaintances lose or derail their lives for the green dream, always feeling the itch for more cash and more power.

But as a college student with tuition to pay—and few options in the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression—Ty is willing to try almost anything.

When his eccentric Uncle Bob introduces him to some local growers, the rules of the industry start to dominate Ty’s double life. He spends his days taking notes in lecture halls and his nights and weekends five hours north at his secret farm in the mountains, where danger and beauty are as tangible as the plants themselves.

Soon, he is more successful than he ever could have imagined—more successful than just about any other grower on the mountain. But he faces natural disasters, animal encounters, the gossip mill, the authorities, the highs and lows of first love, and a crowd of “trimmigrants” and pot-star groupies as he grapples with the damage that growing does to his mental health and the land itself.

Today, Ty is the CEO of SEVEN LEAVES, a fully licensed cannabis cultivation operation with product in over four hundred stores and a commitment to 100 percent green energy. But his path to sustainable growing was long and gnarly. Growing pot wasn’t Ty’s plan, but he found his calling when he stepped out of the shadow of the mountain.

A coming-of-age journey where the truth is stranger than fiction, Five Hours North tells the story of the lost pre-legalization weed scene, when the characters were larger than life and the growers were always one step from disaster.