[Vernon] 2.62 ounces.
It's not like, "Yay!" We're rich.
[Kris] Ooh.
-[Shawn] Little late. -Little late, huh?
Got to get it.
Got to do a little better than that.
[Kris] 10.47 ounces and it's unacceptable.
[narrator] This season has already been a rough ride
for the miners.
Now it's about to go from bad to worse.
[Vernon] If this rain keeps up, it's going to put
a hurtin' on us.
[Kris] The storm is really putting
a damper on everything.
We're not on the water, not on the land.
I've never seen this much rain and known before.
[Vernon] We're going to call it Fight of the Day.
[Zeke] And so we're all just here stumbling
around in circles in the rain.
It's just frustrating. I don't know what to do.
Just like struggling really hard to, like,
not be depressed.
[Kris] Right now, one of the skips are flipped over.
Ninety percent of the time, when you see
a boat flipped over like that, someone's dying.
But look at it. If there was somebody dead right now,
the ambulance would be here.
Every time you go out there in bad weather,
you're taking your life in your own hands.
[narrator] Days of relentless rain have started to subside.
But rough currents, the limited visibility
below leave few options for a battered fleet
desperate to return to mining.
[Zeke] Bad things can happen in this harbor if you're just
leaving your boat anchored.
It's like [imitating waves crashing]
[narrator] With rising waves,
Zeke Tenhoff isn't taking any chances.
[Zeke] I'm gonna take the boat across the harbor,
and I'm gonna pull the boat out.
I've got a killer deal going with Shawn.
He's letting me and my brother take the Havilah out
on the Tomcord later this summer.
[Zeke] In order to be as efficient as possible,
I'm prospecting around with this little boat.
I made so that we'll know where the good ground is.
But there's no way to do that with the currents,
how they are right now, it's not even safe
to keep the boat on the water.
The weather this summer is not improving.
I have to, like, reset kind of
and just like, take the boat out because if the wind gets
really strong and then the storm surge
comes up, it stops being like a safe place
for your boat to live.
I just need to park it.
[Zeke] We've already lost days.
If these conditions continue like this for very much longer,
it's just going to ruin the season for me.
It'll be a total bust.
We're good. We got it.
And I'm just going to, like, leave the boat out until...
the weather gets a little better.
[narrator] As Zeke retreats for the safety of shore...
[Emily] Forecast doesn't look great.
So just step out,
get a lay of the land, see what the swirl is like.
[narrator] One captain, despite the fierce winds,
is still determined to get a firsthand look
before throwing in the towel.
[Emily] To play down enough, we will take the boat out.
Mining in the Bering Sea is complicated.
You invest tons of money.
You have to find tons of gold to be profitable.
But the Bering Sea doesn't care
about any of that.
There are going to be days where the Bering Sea makes it
impossible to mine.
And if there's too many of those days,
you're going to lose your opportunity
and lose all your money.
So you have to use your best judgment.
And sometimes you just have to dig your heels in
and go for it.
[Emily] It's not just about your vessel
being seaworthy or not.
The boat's going like this.
It's really making it impossible for the diver
to stay and work the ground and the--
You know, put gold in this new spot.
We got a rough boat.
We got some pretty, pretty good swells.
[Emily] I'm determined to hit 250 ounces this summer.
I will have a family and build a legacy, and it will take
at least that much.
I really want to risk it today,
but I have to be honest, it's too dangerous.
What this weather could do to the Eroica,
it'll cost me more in the long run.
Oh, man.
It's pretty choppy out there.
[Emily speaking]
[narrator] Back in town...
[Kris] Okay. It was the first hard cleanup.
Our numbers were not where we need to be.
[narrator] The rough sea conditions threatened
to derail the fledgling Reaper Nation even further.
But they're not going down without a fight.
[Kris] I know we're not going to fail.
We just need to push hard.
We need to stick together and we need to make this work.
And I know we can do it.
Keep our heads in the game and let's not get bummed out.
The gold is gonna come.
Okay, everybody, give me some [bleep] fist love.
[man 1] Yeah, baby. Let's make it happen.
And I know it's going to work out, okay?
-[man 2] We need it. -[Kris] Okay.
[Kris] This season has not really gone the way
I thought it was going to.
Not even close.
We need to turn everything around fast.
But right now, Mother Nature is trying to screw me.
[man 3] It is starting to blow up a little bit like the wind
starting to pick up a little bit, you guys.
I just want to make sure everybody's safe.
We could be pushing it, but like,
aren't we kind of at that point where we got it?
-[man 3] We have to push it. -We got to push it like...
[man 3] That's why I want Kris to make the call.
[Kris] Hey, we're going.
And I know I'm pushing to get out there.
Do you want me to lift the spud?
Stand by.
No one in Nome is going out in these conditions
except for us.
We owe $125,000 at the end of the month,
or the Mistress is probably gonna get repossessed.
So even though this is a [bleep] situation
we're still going mining, we don't have a choice.
[Kris] Yeah. We're ready.
-[man 4] Yeah. -[Kris] Okay.
-Okay, let's go. -[man 5] All right.
[Kris] Right now we're underway
with the Mistress.
We're going into a little bit of a bad weather situation,
but I don't get it [bleep] at this point,
I know the boat can handle it.
I know my crew's trained well enough.
I know we're going to make money today.
I know it.
A little bit of waves.
That's not going to stop us right now.
[bleep]
[James] And that currents. Where you've been?
That right there is bigger than it seems.
[Kris] It's a little rougher than we thought
when we came out here.
So this is the point of no return.
Do you want to go back or do you want to keep going?
[James] Nobody's mining [bleep]
that we're going to work.
Everybody else wants to stay in.
Not us.
We're gonna get what we can and go.
[Kris] Okay, full steam ahead.
[man 7] Well, we'll work full steam in the head.
[Kris] Okay. Beautiful.
[Kris] Okay, Well, the waves are bigger than I thought.
But so is the amount of money we still owe.
Today we're going to find out what the Mistress can take.
If not, we're going to the bottom
of the Bering Sea one way or another.
So the last time I was anywhere near
the spot was in 2018.
And we were doing good.
But I had a million breakdown, so I really didn't get
to finish this area.
Well, that's prospecting. So let's start.
[Kris] Yeah, let's just give it a shot.
[James] Okay. I think this is a great spot to start.
Get ready to drop a spud.
[Kris] Dropping.
Both of them are down.
This [bleep] wind is picking up again.
We're taking waves from the side.
Hope I made the right call right now.
[James] So this isn't exactly ideal taking swells, you know,
they're just broadsiding us.
So right now, this is [bleep].
[Kris speaking]
[man 7 speaking]
[Kris] Okay, This is nuts.
The winds are so high.
We're having trouble putting the spuds down
and getting into position.
That's pretty crazy.
It's not gonna work.
[Kris] What are we doing?
[James] We've got two options,
like in motor is out deeper, drop a spud,
get out of the trough, or we can save the views
on the barge and motoring.
So you think it's too rough to dig, though?
[James] Yeah.
There's a reason why no one else is out.
[Kris] It's looking like we should motor in.
So maybe it was a bad idea, a waste of time.
It's not possible to do any mining.
Not now. Not in these conditions.
So we're going down the tubes fast at this point.
[James] It is time to get out of here.
[Kris] We had our shot, we couldn't make it work.
And that's it.
We'll come back tomorrow morning at 10:00
and do it again.
Desperation makes you do [bleep] things.
Do you know what I'm saying?
[Shawn] When the weather's good, we're all on water.
But the weather is keeping us off the water.
So here we are at the inland mine.
Here comes the haul truck.
One of the key things to keep an operation
this big running is diversity.
Sure, I got my baby, the CR, the Money Merle,
and soon the Havilah.
But I also have the Inland Mine.
It's a monster.
It makes a ton of gold,
but it's way more costly to operate.
And it takes up way more resources.
The biggest thing on the inland
is keeping everything running.
[Shawn] Offshore you got a water pump, an excavator,
and a wash plant.
Inland, you got dozers, excavators, haul trucks,
wash plants, water pumps, dewatering pumps.
And you burn a lot more fuel.
So in order to keep this operation going,
you got to keep everything greased and groomed
and oiled and ready to rock and roll.
[Shawn] It is a lot to maintain.
Hopefully, all this works out because it's a big gamble.
But with big gambles come big rewards.
I've been looking at an area called Cooper Gulch,
which I'm betting is going to be our next hotspot.
This is Cooper Gulch here.
This is all been mined by the old-timers.
They didn't get it all, though.
For some reason, they missed this little area right here.
And with the way, the price of gold is at...
we're gonna get after it.
Inland mining is nothing like mining on the ocean.
We're going after the same type of material,
but in the inland, you have to move
a mountain of overburden to get to the pay.
And once you're to the pay, then you bring it to the wash plant.
If you're wrong, you burn a ton of money.
It'll hurt big.
But if you're right, it pays off big.
Let's go get this cut started.
[alarm beeping]
[Shawn] I'm pretty excited to see
what's at the bottom of this cut here.
Could be a little bit. Could be a lot.
We are hoping for a lot.
[narrator] Shawn's not the only member of the fleet
working off the water.
With damp weather,
I can't stand being around Nome
and not being able to get out to dredge.
Yeah.
[narrator] With the Bering Sea off limits, Vernon Adkison
is on the hunt to somehow keep the gold coming in.
[Vernon] Today, it's just a scouting expedition.
And I've been interested in this claim
for several years now.
I think the time is right to go check them out.
And these claims,
I've got it from several government sources
that they're good.
Here's the thing.
I'm looking to build a gold-filled kingdom,
not some rinky-dink operation.
Mother Nature is not making that easy right now.
So I'm looking inland.
Way inland,
like 80 miles from town to inland.
I've got to lead on some potentially hot river claims.
Well, you never know if it's true.
It could be someone just yanking your chain.
[Bryan] My lady one, we're almost there.
Can you smell that gold?
Yeah, I can.
That's gonna be exciting.
There it is. The end of the world.
[Vernon] Well, it might not be the end of the world,
but it's pretty much the end of the road.
This is the last bridge on Kougarok Road.
[Bryan] You sure, it's safe?
[laughing]
[Bryan] We could wind up in the river.
We'll find out. Won't we?
[Vernon] You know, it's one of those...
you're taking your life in your hands.
But just...
This place's to hell and gone.
The Kougarok is about as far as anybody
in Nome goes.
Maybe even further.
It's a pain in the rough getting out of here.
So it better be worth it.
So it's gonna be right down here little ways.
So from here, it's about 1,200 feet down to the river...
2,000 feet to the claims.
Once we get down here for 3000 feet,
that's half a mile.
It's gonna be a hike down there.
And I doubt my knee is gonna hold up.
But I'm saying, let's take a walk down this trail awaits.
[Bryan] All right.
I want to get my eye on these river clams.
I want to see how much trouble it's going to be to get
the equipment in and if it's even worth it.
These remote things can get dodgy.
And the last thing I want to do
is to make some big effort to get out here,
and then take it in the shorts.
The owner says there's a little bit of a hike
getting down there.
So we'll see.
I think the trail gets pretty muddy on down,
but we'll walk away.
Well, see if it's gonna be a global thing.
[Vernon grunting]
I don't know what the hell he would tell me.
A couple of hundred yards, my ass.
[Bryan] No way.
[Vernon] I don't think we're gonna make it all the way there.
[James] All right.
Anyway, there the claim is--
Where that sandbar is is where the claims start.
And if you'll notice, over on this side,
there are two pieces of equipment,
an excavator and a trommel.
And that's what the claim owner told me,
that he thought his partner had left something there.
So we get back and launch the drone
and take a good close look at it.
Yeah. Yeah, that'd be.
-[Vernon] Yeah. -That'd be great.
[Vernon] To hell with walking down there.
I'm going to get a drone in the air
and get a full overhead view of what we're getting into.
So I know what I'm dealing with.
It's better to rely on technology if you've got it.
And that's kind of my specialty anyway.
[man 7 speaking]
[Vernon] No, that ain't good.
[Vernon] Fire it up, Bryan.
Go.
Okay, so check out that equipment shift.
That's a mini excavator and a trommel.
[Bryan] There it is. There's an excavator and a trommel.
That definitely is.
Check the other bank.
Check the bank on this side.
[drone hovering]
[Vernon] I like it.
Yeah. Yeah.
[Vernon] This site does look promising.
It's wide and relatively deep.
There's a flat ground where we can park the equipment.
I think it's worth giving it a shot,
especially with the sea conditions.
So we'll get the team down here tomorrow
if the weather is still not cooperating
and get to work.
All right, Well, good enough.
Let's get the hell out of here.
I don't know what the hell he was telling me.
A couple of hundred yards, my ass.
Kind of makes me wonder if the guy's ever actually
even been down here himself.
[James] Yeah.
[narrator] A new dawn on the Bering Sea.
And as the day starts...
the gods refused to cooperate.
As currents pick up steam on the high seas.
[Brad] Where do you guys want to launch the boat over right here?
Right here. [bleep]
[Kris] Yeah. We've got to take it over to the other side.
[narrator] Well, conditions are too rough to mine.
[Andy] One, two, three.
-[man 7] Yeah. -Okay.
[narrator] There's potentially good news for Captain Kris.
[Brad] We're good.
[narrator] The new and improved Reaper is ready
to be tested in the calm waters of the harbor.
[Kris] That's plowing down.
This trailer is a hunk of [bleep].
[Brad] And the pontoon... [speaks indistinctly]
[Kris] Sea conditions suck, we can't mind.
And if this continues, we're probably
going to lose everything.
But my dad and brother finally got
the work done on the Reaper.
So we're going to try it out.
Make sure they didn't screw up anything.
The boat's good to go.
Moving forward, this will be a big part of the Reaper's success.
[Andy] Load them Kev.
Grinds.
God, that's a terrible sound.
Stop right there, Kev.
[Kev] That's how the professionals do it, baby.
[Andy] Okay, let's go. Start her up.
Is it not starting?
[Brad] No, it's not.
[Andy] Oh, this is great.
What happened, Andy?
[Andy] I don't know. My dad's in there [bleep] with it.
[bleep]
[Kris] You guys need to make it work.
The boat should have been in the water a week ago.
I'm not really understanding how he's not getting it.
We got the boat in the water
and the outboard is not running.
So I don't know what's going on,
but I know I've got other [bleep] things to do.
[Andy] You're not going to get it.
[Kris] What's going on?
It just-- It's not starting. I'm choking it.
Hey, let's bring it out of the water
because we're not making this work.
[Andy] Let's get this [bleep] thing out of here.
[Kris] Yeah. Great job.
So, shocker of all shockers, I give my dad and brother one simple job,
get the Reaper ready to mine,
and they completely face-planted.
[Kris] I should have known better.
The problem is I need this boat working this summer
if I'm going to have any chance
of Reaper Nation surviving.
So this might sink us if I can't fix it.
[engine sputtering]
[Kris] Dad. Dad!
You need to stop.
You guys all. You need to get off my boat.
You guys all.
[Andy] I already see how this season's going to go, dude. It's so great.
[Kris] Let me call Chris and see if there's a trick
that we have to do to start this.
My dad and brother clearly have no idea
what they're doing.
We bought the engine secondhand from Chris McCully,
so hopefully, he can get in here and get it working.
[Andy] Here he comes now. McCully.
Hey, I tried to get it started, but...
-[Chris] What happened? -[Andy] It just turns over, bro.
You got to put it on neutral. You got to rev it up.
Do you remember I told you that?
[Andy] Try to get it going right now.
That thing is in running.
[Kris] Good job buddy.
Let's get this in the water.
So that's all it took.
My dad and brother are useless.
[Brad] Okay. Let's go.
We're going.
I don't feel good secure driving it,
but we're driving it.
Do you know what I mean?
Yeah, baby.
[Kris] The Reaper is alive.
And with that payment coming, thank God.
We just need the weather to clear up so we can get
all of Reaper Nation on the water
so we can make big money.
Oh, yeah.
[Andy] Yeah, everything is done. Ready to go.
The boat sits perfectly in the water
with all the weight on it.
I'm happy with this.
[Brad] Next Wednesday, we will go get gold.
[Andy] Yep.
[narrator] As the new Reaper finally springs to life.
On the other side of the harbor.
[Vernon] Let's get this thing loaded up, guys.
Get on down the road.
The Kougarok is waiting for us.
[narrator] Vernon Adkison prepares
for a long day's journey to the Kougarok River.
[Vernon] We're all loaded up with our prospecting dredge.
We got a four-wheeler, a trailer,
some other equipment.
Going back to Kougarok...
and we got the dredge out there and start prospecting.
Yeah, that's good. That's good.
All right. Let's get out of here.
These conditions can turn on a dime,
especially in the next two days.
It might be good for a few hours,
and then they'll turn to garbage.
That's why we're looking for an inland claim
that we can call home and go to any time.
Hopefully, that'll be the verdict with Kougarok,
because it's a major trek getting out there.
[Vernon] We'd see supposed gold.
We'll bring out a bigger rig.
Sweet.
[speaking indistinctly]
-Yeah. -Yeah, sure.
And I'm kicking a square in the ass.
Suck up to make some gold, that's what I'm looking for.
[horn honking]
[Bryan] Damn.
[Vernon] Get off the road.
[Vernon] Got him going at 22 miles an hour.
He's doing a haul ass.
Get along little doggie.
Maybe he took up a little jog down the highway,
We'll slow him down to nothing.
Get out there and ride his ass.
I mean, he got the entire state of Alaska on the left and the right,
but he's choosing to run down the middle of the road.
[horn honking]
Oh, there he goes.
Goodbye, little buddy.
I don't think people realize the amount of equipment,
effort, and time it takes to dredge for gold.
[Bryan] Let's go.
Come on.
[Vernon] Even in the little river, it still takes
a decent-sized operation.
And all that had to be transported over 80 miles.
Hopefully, we're only a few steps away from being set up.
[Bryan] The thing, looking good?
[Bryan] Oh.
Hey.
That didn't work.
Oh, there goes that idea.
[bleep] that, man.
Damn it.
You know...
Don't [bleep] with me right now.
I don't even know if there's gold
in this damn place.
We've been working at it for two days,
and now we got a wheeler stuck.
This is slowly turning into a clutter [bleep].
I'm beginning to wonder if this mission is a curse.
All right.
Finally, two days.
240 miles.
[Bryan] I got it.
And I don't know how many tons of equipment
were transported later.
That won't go anywhere.
We're finally ready to get a body in the water and see
if there's any damn gold here.
That water is freezing cold.
It's like literally ice water.
The water in the ocean is pretty warm throughout,
48 degrees just up here at 34, a couple of degrees
above freezing.
Well, Bryan, look here.
I don't want you to go hypothermic.
You just stay out there.
And when you get-- when you start getting [bleep].
You just come out and get warm.
[Bryan speaking]
[Vernon] Maybe he can get the...
[Bryan speaking]
[Vernon] ...water warming up the sick guys,
but at least get his toes warm.
The thing about it is that once your feet go
right after that, your brain goes.
You go hypothermic.
Yeah. Bryan's got some hot water now.
So he's the man of the moment.
I mean, that water right there
is way colder than the water in the ocean right now.
That damn Bryan is a polar bear.
[narrator] On the Bering Sea.
For the first time in five days,
Mother Nature may be giving the miners
a short break in the weather.
[Emily] Holly. Come here. Holly, come here.
Come here.
Come on.
Yeah, you did it.
Good girl. You're a champion.
Good girl.
[narrator] And after being turned back
by rough seas yesterday...
[Emily] The weather's good again for a bit.
The visibility should be improving.
[narrator] Emily Riedel is doggedly jumping
at Mother Nature's sudden opportunity.
[Emily] We've got to really take advantage of this good
weather window, so we'll get out there and see
how she rolls.
We got a good window here
and we're not going to waste time,
so we're going to get two dives in
and make up for the lost time.
When the Bering Sea throws you a curveball,
you just have to adjust.
and that's what we're gonna do.
It's nice out. And it's swelly.
I bring in a new... Rick,
a new diver for the boat.
[Emily] Here's Rick.
I got to send Rick down and see
what we're working with.
I don't need another diva.
I just need someone to get us on the gold
so the next driver can guzzle it up.
Fingers crossed. He's a good hire.
[Rick speaking]
[Emily] Hey, what's up, Rick?
[Rick] Kind of dark down here.
Pretty clear, but dark.
Just dark.
[Emily] Yeah. Roger that.
[Rick speaking]
[Emily] No. We need to get some gold, man.
[Rick speaking]
[Emily] All right, Roger. Roger.
[Rick speaking]
[Emily] Okay, copy that.
[Rick speaking]
[Emily] [bleep] Yeah. That's awesome, dude.
[Rick speaking]
[Emily] That sounds good.
This is what I wanted to hear.
These old timers are amazing at sniffing out untouched ground.
And that's exactly what Rick did.
Now we're off and running.
Trying to make the most out of good weather.
God willing.
[Emily singing]
[narrator] Soon, though, Emily's dredge
will not be the only one at work.
[Zeke] It looks like good weather.
So might as well bring the boat over to the lawn,
tramp over on the other side of the harbor.
You're back in the water.
[narrator] Zeke Tenhoff is ready to join the fun.
And rush onto the water with his personally
constructed dredge.
[Zeke] So, I mean, I'm going to go out there.
I'm going to get six or seven hours, get a bunch of gold.
It's heartbreaking that we've been pushed off
the water as long as we have.
The good news is that the wind has died down,
the visibility is improving.
And I finally got a chance to get out there
and get some more gold.
And I'm going to take it.
We're ready to go.
Get out and do some mining here.
I've got to get out on the water
before the weather changes again.
Steve is MIA.
So, I'm going to have to bring in a new tender
on short notice.
It's not just anyone.
It's my girlfriend, Lexi.
[Lexi speaking]
[Zeke] Some might say that bringing your girlfriend
into a work situation is unwise.
And judging by the history I have had with this,
they would have a point.
You can just clarify what it's like,
what the nature of our relationship is.
It's gotten personal.
You said you're gonna come up
and burn my [bleep] house down with me in it.
Come on. You know, calm down [bleep] on.
All right. It's been nice working with you.
I'm hoping that this time it works out better
having my girlfriend on the boat.
Good to go. Perfect.
-Thank you. -Yeah.
It's like shavings on your head.
[Lexi] Well, good luck.
[Zeke] I'm really excited.
I'm on the bottom.
[Zeke grunting]
I don't have any suction at all.
Turn the pumps all the way up.
So I have enough suction to dig this hole.
All right.
Coming right up.
[Zeke] Yes.
[Lexi] Is it better?
[Zeke] Okay, yeah. That's better.
Thanks.
[Zeke] It's just like a little patch of rocks.
I'm just going to excavate.
I might pick up and wait for a little over the door.
And I found this spot.
It'll be easy to miss.
Great. Okay.
[Zeke] Oh, yeah. There's a piece of course gold.
[Lexi] Awesome.
[Zeke] Yeah, there's I think there's nuggets under here.
[Lexi] No way!
[Zeke] The gold is just unbelievably hot.
It's just crazy.
Thinking my eyes pop out.
But they are really just getting into it.
There's a lot more gold here for me to dredge.
[Lexi] That's crazy.
[Zeke] Crazy. Crazy rich.
[Zeke] He's tried to do this before with girlfriends,
I think, and it didn't work out.
[Zeke] I'm not getting a lot of gold out here as it is.
Like I can't [bleep].
[Lexi speaking]
[narrator] 11 miles east.
[Shawn speaking]
[narrator] His operations on the water may be down,
but Mr. Gold is determined not to skip a beat.
[Shawn speaking]
[narrator] As he tears into the new cut
at the inland mine.
[Shawn speaking]
You got to be fast on your toes in gold mining.
You have to be able to focus on all aspects
of your business.
Got some dirt moved.
We're gonna name this new cup, Cooper Gulch
because it's right next to Cooper Golf.
Hopefully, this cut delivers what we need
because we have not been on the water
with the weather being so bad.
Can't have any downtime.
Not in any way.
Not in operation this big.
All right, now we're going to run a haul truck...
bring pay to the wash plant.
First thing in the step of gold mining,
you need paydirt.
Dirt with gold in it.
That's the moneymaker right there.
[Shawn] This is a haul truck.
Dump truck hauls ten yards.
This holds 20.
And it's made to be go on the off-road.
You know, my dad and I used to run this mine together
for many years, but it wasn't pretty.
You keep being a [bleep] ass.
-You are [bleep]. -[bleep].
[Steve] Clean up your damn mess when you get done.
I'm gonna sell my half of this [bleep] company,
and you can do it by yourself.
Thanks for the gold boys.
We may have to fight you for it.
Now that's mine.
I'm going to run it my way.
Efficient, smart, and a money-making machine.
[Shawn] Here we go.
Now he's going to put a load of paydirt in here.
That's a 992 loader.
Every bucket is ten yards.
Once we get it to load,
give her a little shake,
and now we're on our way.
So we got 45,000 pounds worth of dirt
in the back of the truck.
We're headed to the wash plant.
We're gonna dump the paydirt in the pay pile.
[Shawn] Wow.
That is a pretty simple process.
Load up the paydirt from the cut.
Bring it to the wash plant.
Wash it.
Now we just got to do it about 10,000 more times.
[Emily] Hey, what's up, Rick?
[Rick speaking]
[Emily] Time to score.
[narrator] After days on the sidelines.
Emily Riedel is looking to make the most of a break
in the weather with a double dive day.
He's working some really challenging ground right now.
It's just a lot of overburden...
a lot of really tightly packed gravel, difficult to move.
[Rick speaking]
[Emily] All right. All right, Rick.
That's good. I'll see you when you get up.
You don't have to hook up the nozzle.
We got another driver coming right out.
[Rick] Okay.
[Emily] Rick's super old-school diver.
He's done an awesome job at getting us
on some unworked ground.
He's worked through a lot of the overburden and rocks.
You're good.
Bueno.
It's snug enough.
[Emily] And now we're going to get
Grant down there to suck up the gold.
Go kick-ass.
[Emily] How's it looking down there?
[Grant] The visibility is terrible.
The water is looking pretty dark.
[Emily] Yeah, 10-4.
[Grant] Up. Coming up on some cobble.
Let me try this for a second.
[Emily] Yeah, roger that.
[Grant] I'm starting to see a couple of specks
of gold down here.
That's exciting.
[Emily] Oh, yeah. Do you see some gold down there?
[Grant speaking]
[Emily yelling]
[Emily] After that time,
that's exactly what we're looking for.
Now, hopefully, Grant can hit it big
and pull in enough ounces for two days.
We need it.
Definitely have high hopes, but I'm aiming big this summer.
[Emily speaking]
[Emily] Rattle, rattle, rat.
[narrator] Ten miles west.
[Lexi] Zeke, do you copy?
How's it looking down there?
[Zeke] I'm just bugging out on all this gold here.
It's just tripping me off.
[Lexi] That's great.
[narrator] Finally back on the sea floor.
A fresh face topside.
Maybe a good luck charm for Zeke Tenhoff.
[Zeke] I have only seen stuff this good a couple of times.
There haven't been that many people that have searched
around here a lot.
And...
it's just crazy.
[Lexi] Wow.
[Zeke] How are you doing?
[Lexi] A little exhausted, I guess.
I mean.
It's great on the ocean.
[Zeke] It's great to have a tender.
[Lexi] Aw!
[Zeke speaking]
[Lexi speaking]
[Zeke] It helps me know that I don't have to make
so many trips to the surface.
[Zeke speaking]
[Zeke] I'm going to wrap it up for today.
[Lexi] Okay. Copy.
Sounds good.
[Zeke] Okay.
Got to get it when the going is good.
[Zeke] Without a tender, I probably wouldn't even
been able to come out today.
Thank God I had Lexi around to help.
I would have missed this window,
and a setback like that would have really put me
behind the curve for gold production this summer.
I think this is the best gig that there is.
Maybe the rule about not bringing your girlfriend
onto the boat just depends a lot
on who your girlfriend is.
Because this has been working out fine.
I was on gold all day.
Good day.
[Lexi] That's awesome.
[narrator] Eighty miles outside Nome.
[Vernon] I think, we're gonna need more gas.
[narrator] As Vernon Adkison burns up
the Kougarok coastline,
Bryan Wilder braves the frigid river water
in search of gold.
[Vernon] Damn wind is blowing it out.
Let's move that...
Move that sled over here to buck the wind.
It's getting colder than a winter...
well, colder than a witch out here.
And just like everything else out here,
starting a fire is proving to be a royal pain.
Damn wind.
You know, damn it.
Bryan has been pretty good, but off for a few hours now,
dredging out that river bottom.
Hopefully, he's gotten into something good
and this hasn't been a fool's errand from hell.
Hey, Bryan.
Let's go ahead and shut it down.
Get a shot. We've got a good fire going.
Come over here and get warm.
He's freezing his ass off out there.
That water is ice cold.
He's just praying that I'd call him.
He wouldn't call it.
He would stay in until he's blue all over.
Just get the anchor up here on the beach.
You guys come on over and get warm.
[Bryan speaking]
[Bryan] Oh, I feel that, though.
Oh, yeah.
-[Vernon] Yeah. -[Bryan speaking]
[Vernon] I thought you'd like that.
[Bryan speaking]
[Vernon] Yeah.
Your face is a little bit blue.
You know?
I mean, you look good in blue.
[Bryan speaking]
[man 8 speaking]
[Bryan speaking]
[Vernon] My goal is to become the gold king of Nome.
And if the weather is going to kick us off the ocean
from time to time,
I need an inland spot to keep me
on top of the throne.
So if this claim is as loaded as the stories
I'm hearing, this could be the spot.
[Bryan] So, let's see if there's any gold in the box.
It's in here,
kind of washed out.
We're going to have to do a cleanup in the carpet here and see what we got.
[Bryan speaking]
[Bryan] No. No gold.
Well, no visible gold.
[Bryan speaking]
[Vernon] If there's none showing,
maybe we'll see something later when we clean it.
If we come up empty after busting our balls
to get out here, I would not be a happy camper,
to say the least.
There have been times when the box
doesn't look great, but we end up with a strong cleanout.
So here's to hoping that happens.
We'll give it about one more beer,
and then we'll put [bleep] away and get on out of here.
-[man 8] All right. -Sounds good to me.
[Vernon] When we're done, we've got to take
all these beer cans out of here.
[Emily] Hey, you got a copy.
[Grant speaking]
[Emily] How's the pipe down there? How's it going?
[Grant] Oh, pretty good.
[Emily] Weather is a little edgy.
[Grant] Se we can wrap it up.
All right.
Well, I better...
tag out.
[Emily] All right. That's great. That's great. Sounds good.
All right, buddy. I'll see you at the top.
The Bering Sea kept us off the water.
But we cannot be stopped.
We got two awesome dives today
and we came back really strong.
I think we just had our biggest day of the season.
We'll see how it goes.
But if we keep up at this rate,
I can legit build a legacy for my family.
You kept me hanging.
Back again are the waters.
[narrator] As the waves pick up steam...
one member of the fleet is just getting started.
[Kris] We're off to do it again.
The truth is, it is [bleep] South breeze.
Ninety percent of the time,
you do not go out into these situations.
[James speaking]
[narrator] Likely a day late and $125,000 short,
Kris Kelly looks to give it a go just
as Mother Nature's wrath returns.
[James speaking]
[Kris] I got it. I got it.
Let's go for a boat ride.
Come on, buddy. Be in a better mood.
Come on, let's go.
Fire up the generator.
So we tested out the Reaper, and then we heard
there was a break in the weather.
So we rushed out here as fast as we can
to get some mining in.
Is it better today than yesterday?
At this point, not really.
But we owe a boatload of money at the end of the month.
We're going. Simple as that.
[James] Security. Security, security.
This is Mistress leaving the south wall, exiting
the harbor, and in concerning traffic on 16 and 72.
[James] From the point where we're super desperate
to get after it, we're going to push.
We're going to see if we can get something
a little something better than nothing.
What have we got to lose?
Maybe a barge.
This is exactly the way it was yesterday.
Except the winds coming from the south slightly,
yesterday it was coming from the west.
The south is always the worst.
The south-- Anything south builds waves.
[Kris] This is what's known as the Hail Mary.
Either we get destroyed or we get gold.
I wish it was 50/50, but that's optimistic.
Get ready in position.
Dropping.
So we're going on a different strategy.
What we're going to do is we're going to do a giant U-turn...
and then have our ass in taking the power of the wave.
Here we go.
Bull spuds down, we're getting... get the wash plant up
and going and start running some material.
[Kris] Everything is running great.
Very good.
[James] So we're about to turn around prospecting.
Let's see how it goes.
That's what we're looking for.
This is the right ground.
[Kris] Ha-ha. We're on cobble.
Stand by for a test pass.
Yeah, baby.
What I want to hear from them is I got like,
you know, 5,000 colors in that test count.
I'm hoping they got some good.
[Kris speaking]
[bleep]
We lost our test pans somewhere.
[Kris] Hey, you're not going to believe this.
Our test pan is gone.
The gold. The gold pan is gone.
I'm looking around for it, but I have no idea
where it went to.
I don't know what to do.
But I think you're a good gold.
There's some weird, crusty layer on that.
-[James] Okay. -[James speaking]
Okay. We'll just keep processing the material.
[Kris] So this is a major screw-up.
We forgot the gold pan.
That thing is like 20 bucks.
But without it, we don't even know if we're on gold or not.
So we could be completely wasting our time.
I think.
I think the material looks good.
We're just going to go for it.
Not ideal, but yeah, it's not ideal.
Basically, I have no idea what I'm digging.
If we're digging just for funsies...
we have no way to [bleep] even see our color.
Once again, an amazing day.
[James] It's kind of hard to prospect.
I'm bouncing off spuds.
We're twisting this spud.
Swells coming in
from all sorts of different directions.
Getting pulled all the way around.
[Kris] Oh, [bleep] we're spinning.
[Kris] Hey, we're spinning.
[James] I know.
[James] Turn on the Thrustmaster,
get me north and south.
Spin us against this wind and current.
[Kris] Turn the Thrustmaster on.
So with the spuds being beaten up this bad,
we really need to get this barge under control.
And the only way to do that is with the Thrustmaster.
Which is like a super-sized outboard for this massive
excavation barge.
Otherwise, we could just smash into shore and possibly lose
everything we have.
[man 9] The batteries are dead on the Thrustmaster.
[Kris] Oh, we're in trouble.
Get out of the way. Get out of the way.
The batteries on the Thrustmaster died
for some weird reason.
There's a power drain somewhere going on.
And the waves are getting bigger.
We might have to take off.
[James] This is all bad, dude.
This is all bad.
[Kris] I hear nothing but screeching metal.
[James] We're gonna end up [bleep] snapping
this spud cable eventually.
This is [bleep] stupid.
We got to get out of here.
Calm down. We'll be fine.
My spuds are really getting hammered right now.
Like the metal is cracking.
Well, pull them up. We've to move...
We can't do that because the boat
will drift into the shore.
All right, let me get the jumper cables ready.
So the Mistress is getting absolutely pounded.
And the spuds are getting beat to hell.
Our only hope of not crashing into shore is getting
that engine going.
If we can't jump-start this Thrustmaster
kiss the Mistress goodbye.
[man 9] Yeah, it's hooked up.
[Kris] I just got [bleep] electrocuted.
[man 9 speaking]
[James] All right. Let me check it.
All right. We're on, baby, we're on.
[Kris] Hey. Crisis averted.
Good job, team.
Let's get fired back up.
We're not quitting yet.
Let's do it.
Take that off.
James, why don't we just stay and work tonight?
[James speaking]
Okay. Well, let me...
[bleep] We just had such an epic moment
there pushing through our problem.
Problem averted guys.
Well, let's get back on the gold.
[Kris] James says he's getting real tired.
-Huh? -[James speaking]
[Kris] So I realized we've been out a long time
and it's getting late.
Still, we have to keep pushing.
We have no choice.
But James is acting like a little bitty baby,
and he's too tired to keep going.
With that giant bill due at the end of the month,
it's time to bring in the night crew.
[Taylor speaking]
Go jump in, do it.
[Kris] James, Kevin and all the other lightweights
can go crawl in their beds,
but me, I'm just getting started.
We always can do this, baby.
We got this!
Yeah!
So, it's all up to me now, everybody took off.
I'm left with a bunch of guys that are...
let's just say untrained.
We're gonna make this work, we have a game plan.
Really, I'm just staying up and making sure
everything runs smooth.
If I see a problem, I run down there and hammer at it.
Everything is going to work out just fine.
Man, 16 hours straight up work today.
Well, everyone's asleep anyway.
We got Cooper gold opened up,
hopefully there's pay dirt.
[narrator] After two round the clock days
of inland mining...
I'm gonna check the box here and see how it's running.
See if all this fuel and money
that we're spending is worth it.
[narrator] ...Mr. Gold is ready to see
if the new cut makes the cut.
Let's just keep our fingers crossed.
With the weather kicking the Myrtle off the ocean,
me and the crew have been working day and night
on this new cut on the inland.
I need this cut to tap into the gold,
and I need it to be a killer streak.
I'm gonna need it, considering all the things on the water
have been going thus far.
♪ Do you see what I see? ♪
We got gold in the box.
[Shawn speaking]
We're on the right track.
[Shawn speaking]
My back's been up against the wall a thousand times
in this business.
Mother Nature is throwing a few curveballs,
pay streaks dry up, investments don't come through.
But every time you see that pile of gold, you know
you're coming back strong.
It never fails to give you that rush.
It's almost like the first time you saw gold in the box.
Big operation, lots of money going out.
We need lots of gold coming in to support it.
Get the box cleaned out, get it in the Gold Room...
weigh it out, see what we have.
[narrator] And now it's time to flex your BSG brain muscles
with everyone's favorite fake game show, Reveal It!
Rough sea conditions have always
been a part of gold mining in Nome.
I'm sinking!
[narrator] Which member of the fleet once bore
the brunt of giant swells?
[in unison] Reveal it!
Blargh!
[narrator] It was Steve Riedel who was thrown up...
Blarghh!
[narrator] ...and down by the rocky seas.
Blarghh!
[Steve] I feel better now.
A little puking always does it for a guy.
[narrator] Which team endured an epic torrential downpour?
[in unison] Reveal it!
[narrator] That would be the Kellys
who got hosed while testing out a brand-new bridge.
Take the boat back to the shore.
We're done for today, [bleep], [bleep].
We gotta redo everything.
[narrator] And which captain came face to face
with a hurricane?
[in unison] Reveal it!
They don't have a weight belt.
[man 1] Just chill out, okay?
[narrator] That was Vernon Adkison, who brought aboard
a real live hurricane...
Bye, Dave.
[narrator] ...Hurricane Dave.
That was the last [bleep] straw.
[narrator] Thanks for playing.
We'll see you next time on...
[in unison] Reveal it!
I wasn't planning on being here 24 hours
and I'm [bleep] hungry.
[narrator] Through the night and well into the morning,
Captain Kris is the last man standing on the Bering Sea.
This is working 24 hours, and it sucks.
You know, just because this is really heavy, dangerous equipment
and when you're up over 24 hours straight, in this [bleep] condition.
We're gonna push through this, so.
It's going in right now.
We've been going so long, I can't count the hours anymore.
Reaper Nation, breaking records.
But hey, I really have no choice,
desperate times call for desperate measures,
and we're gonna try to keep going.
I'm gonna pull this spud up.
They're going to push back and make it go that way.
We're gonna lift the spud and push backwards
to stay on this gold.
Ready?
I think we're good.
Here we go.
[bleep]
Whoa!
[bleep], man, stop.
Taylor! Taylor!
[bleep]
Taylor. Hold on, hold on, hold on.
Did you see, you lift it up,
the whole [bleep] thing lifted up?
I almost fell off the boat right now, too.
We're overtired right now.
Everybody's making dumb [bleep] mistakes right now, it's dangerous.
Let's cut everything down. I've had enough.
Twenty-four hours is all we can do.
We're gonna hurt ourselves.
So there's a point you can keep pushing
and there's a point you gotta stop.
Because you're so exhausted,
you start making stupid mistakes
where someone's gonna get hurt.
I almost fell off the boat,
and that excavator could've tipped into water.
We're calling it time to head in.
[phone ringing]
We're ready to be picked up or shift change or something.
Everybody's real [bleep] tired here right now.
Maybe you can bring James.
I don't know what to say, if we have nobody...
I can't stay out here [bleep] ten more hours,
I really can't, I'm at the [bleep] limit.
So, James, Kevin, and all those [bleep],
they're too tired to relieve us.
I'm the one out here all night,
and those guys are too tired, unbelievable.
James is asleep,
and he was supposed to be here in 20 minutes.
I'm not going to worry about it, I killed it.
Running the boat by myself for the very first time,
we got gold in the box.
You want to know why that is,
because we force-fed that box today
so everybody can go [bleep] themselves.
You can take my boat and go home.
Turn that up to 1,200 and then help you with the spuds.
Almost there.
Whew!
I'm just tired.
I'm gonna pilot this thing back in,
I've never done it before,
but that's never stopped me before.
I've done everything else in the last 24 hours,
might as well add this to the resume, too.
Okay, let's get going.
Let's go.
We're on our way.
[narrator] Eleven miles east...
on the outskirts of Nome...
[Zeke] I'm excited about doing a cleanup today.
I want to kill it, I want to crush it.
[narrator] ...it's time for Zeke's first clean out of the summer.
But like, I would be happy with an ounce gold.
I'd like it to be more,
but you always want it to be more.
I think this would be better than my clean up last winter.
I didn't get a lot of gold, talking about last winter,
but being here, a lot of good gold to exploit.
I'm not expecting to break the bank today,
but the goal is to do better than I did last season
and hopefully a lot better.
All right, yeah, I think the sluice box is working good.
This spot looks super promising,
so if the numbers turn out good,
I think we could start making some real money.
That would be a huge step forward.
All right, here we go.
One ounce.
Two ounces here.
Three ounces.
All right,
3.39, almost 3.5 ounces.
[narrator] 3.39 ounces, that's worth over $6,000,
and after his first round of prospecting,
the prospects of a strong summer season are looking good.
If I can keep the boat in gold of this value,
then I'll do really well.
This is exactly what I wanted to see,
it's a better cleanout than I had all of last season.
Once we get to have a little running on this ground,
we could be looking at killer gold numbers this summer.
I want my next cleanup to be, like, five or six spots like this,
you know, and then, like, have a 20-ounce cleanup.
-Good start. -Solid.
[narrator] On the other side of town...
[Emily] La-la-la-la-la.
This is why our cleanouts take till [bleep] ten o'clock at night.
Emily, can you not play and just dump that stuff so we can get going?
It happens.
[laughs]
I can make fun of her.
We have a good relationship, it worked out well.
[narrator] After a double dive day,
Emily Riedel is hoping for double gold
to keep her summer going strong.
[Emily] We're hoping that we're on at least
three-quarter ounce an hour in this clean up.
I think we did a lot better than that.
So, I'm gonna find gold.
Hmm, so fine.
Even though Mother Nature tried to stop us,
she couldn't, and we got two dives in
and there's really no setback for us here.
We had an amazing day, and I'm expecting a pretty healthy number.
Sweet, guys, look at this.
One, two.
Three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine, ten,
eleven, 12, 13,
fourteen, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.
There you go.
Twenty-one, 22,
twenty-three, 24, 25.
-Yeah! -[Emily] Woo-hoo!
[narrator] Twenty-five ounces is worth a whopping 45 grand.
All right, 25, doing pretty good.
It's awesome. I'm so stoked.
I think that not only I'll replenish the nest egg,
but I'll go above and beyond it.
This year I'm aiming for 250,
and at this point, I'm starting to believe it'll happen.
Rocking it, man.
-[indistinct chatter] -Good.
[Emily laughs] Good job.
-[Vernon] Hey, Jen. -[Jen] Hey, Vernon.
-How are you doing? -Good, how are you doing?
I'm doing all right, but I could do with a cocktail.
[Jen] Enjoy.
Let's see what people have to say today.
[narrator] And now, another episode of Social Hour with Vernon.
Oh, let's see, all right.
[Vernon speaking]
Yes, I've got a couple.
I do the TV stuff, and I am a professional marine pilot.
And I guarantee you 95% of you people out there
don't even know what the [bleep] that is.
I've been piloting ships for about 30 years.
Started out as an ordinary seaman,
worked my way up to Unlimited Master,
became an Alaska State Marine pilot,
and I still do that work when I'm not up here gold mining.
Being on a ship at sea is like being in jail,
except you get to work 12 hours a day, okay.
I mean, you don't get that kind of tonnage for, like, serial murders.
But after a while, it came to the point
where I enjoyed being at sea.
And then when I became a master
for you landlubbers out there, that's captain.
When I became master of a 900-foot tanker,
life became fairly sweet.
I didn't have to do jack diddly-squat.
Fill up paperwork, and look important.
[narrator] This has been another episode of Social Hour with Vernon.
My phone just went dead.
I guess this cocktail hour is over.
[Shawn] Boogie on down the river, find a spot to fish.
The weather is finally calming down,
but it's too late to get the Myrtle out right now.
So with the inland killing it,
I decided to take a couple hours, take my boys out fishing.
Ready?
[engine revving]
[Shawn speaking]
Hang on.
[laughs]
Yeah!
[indistinct chatter]
[laughter]
We made it.
Running a massive operation like this,
it's easy to get so busy,
you don't spend enough time with your kids.
That's what happened with my dad.
Got one.
[Shawn] Bring it over to me.
Ooh, that's a keeper, that's a keeper.
I'm determined to make sure it doesn't happen with these guys.
My relationship with my kids is way more valuable than gold.
Nice job.
We got fish in the cooler,
life's good.
That's all that matters.
Even if we didn't have fish,
it... it'd still be just fun being out here with the boys.
We're gonna do this a lot more.
[Shawn's son] Oh, I got one.
There you go, Vernie.
These are mats from the Kougarok first.
So yeah, let's clean those Kougarok mats
and see what... how well we did.
[narrator] After the journey of a lifetime,
Vernon Adkison is about to find out
if all the blood, sweat and tears were worth it.
It was a pain in the ass getting set up out there.
Just the road, I mean, that was a justifying transit, let me tell you.
Getting to the Kougarok is about as convenient as getting to the moon.
However, it's not a deal-breaker for me
if it's loaded with gold.
But considering the hours it takes to get back and forth,
it better be claimed 56 level of goodness,
or it's time to say sayonara.
-[man 3] We got a little chunky. -[Vernon] Yeah.
-[man 3] Yeah. -Kougarok's paying out.
Yeah. Hey, look, we got riffles.
We got riffles of gold here.
Depending on what we get,
I've got to call out for a bottle of champagne.
[man 3] Oh, look at that, nice.
That sound never gets old.
How's that coming along?
[man 3] I guess it's ready.
[Vernon] All right, well, bring it on over here and let's do it.
[man 3] All right.
It's quarter ounce,
half ounce. 1.2, 1.3, 1.6.
She's still going, 1.78.
Ugh!
[narrator] 1.78 ounces,
it's worth a little over 3,200 bucks.
Ah, that to me is not cutting it.
Ah, you know, considering all the trouble of getting there
and back and forth and all that,
using what we've got right now, we can't play for that.
1.78 ounces is not horrible
for an average day of river dredging.
But considering the unholy pain it took to get to the Kougarok,
I'm not sure it even paid for the gas.
So thank you, but no thank you, Kougarok.
You can rot for all I care.
So...
[man 3] Yeah, came in better.
I mean, that's good beer and pizza money right there,
but it's not sticking around forever money, I'll tell you that.
[narrator] On the other side of the harbor...
[bleep] Day.
Every day is a [bleep] day.
[indistinct chatter]
[narrator] Kris Kelly is hoping an all-nighter
was enough to get our Reaper Nation back on track.
[Kris] Let's get this [bleep] and get going.
The last run was really hard
and we had a couple of little problems,
but we got gold that nobody else got
because we were out when nobody else was out.
So, overseeing a giant operation
has not been as lucrative as I thought it would be,
not by a long shot,
and it's given me plenty of sleepless nights.
But I'm stubborn as hell, and if I see any way to get gold,
I'm gonna keep pushing until I make this work.
See, like, all in here, all in here,
it's already starting to stack up on the riffles.
And I'm starting to see gold in the box.
Look at this piece, man, this has some weight to it.
Fingers crossed, this way out is a good one, we need it.
Okay, let's go.
Yeah, baby.
Yeah, lay every bucket, this is, this is a good one.
This is... was a very good bucket.
That's a lot of gold.
We're seeing lots of hard-earned gold,
probably the hardest-earned gold
you're supposed to make on an excavator.
There you go, I like that. Oh, yeah, that's nice.
Last cleanout was an embarrassment,
I get more gold off a suction operation,
not a giant excavator barge.
We have to start doing way better or this summer
is gonna be a financial bloodbath.
[man 4] Oh, this is going to tell the tale.
Okay, here we go.
We're at zero.
Two and... Oh, my God, it's like two or three ounces.
[man 4] Keep going, keep going, keep going.
-[Kris] Come on, come on, come on. -[bleep].
[man 5] 3.34.
[man 4] 3.34.
[Kris] Which is [bleep] pretty bad.
[narrator] 3.34 ounces is worth about $6,000
and Reaper Nation is still far from the behemoth their captain envisioned.
[Kris] There's a lot of variables that come in mining.
We didn't have a test pan.
The weather was really bad,
so we had to fight against all everything,
but we need those numbers to go up.
Self-reflection time.
This has been a disaster so far.
I realized we had everything going against us
the last couple of days and we still managed to get gold.
But let's be real, these numbers are terrible.
All I can do is hope once the weather clears,
we get the Reaper in the water
and Reaper Nation rises to the top.
Okay, let's go, we're done.
And that concludes another episode of What the [bleep]!
[narrator] Across town...
[Shawn] Time to do a cleanup, the funnest part of the job.
Buckets look good.
I want to get gold out, scale will know how good it is.
[narrator] The first cleanout from the inland mine's new cut
will determine if it's a cut above the rest.
[Shawn] Things are looking good.
I have a goal for 3,000 ounces this summer,
and with the crap that's been going on in the water,
I need the inland to be firing on all cylinders.
So, I need this new cut to be ringing the bell, big time.
That's a pile of gold right there,
hopefully the deeper we get in the Cooper Gulch, the better the gold gets.
Let's bring it in, weigh it up.
20, 30, 40, 60, 80.
120, 130, 140,
150,
160.
[Shawn] 190, 206, 212...
219.
Cooper Gulch is paying.
[narrator] 219 ounces, it's worth over $395,000.
And Cooper Gulch has made the cut.
Two-nineteen, that's a good cleanup.
And just like that, we're back on track.
Feels good taking this over from my dad, not missing a beat.
It feels damn good.
Hopefully when the weather clears,
we can get back out on the water
and gonna be kicking ass on all fronts.
[Shawn speaking]
Keep drawing dirt, keep putting dirt through the box,
keep sluicing, keep making gold.
So far so good.
It'll get better and better.
[narrator] Mr. Gold starts living up to his name...
while Kris and Vernon continue to sputter.
Next time on Bering Sea Gold...
We're getting out. We're going digging.
What do you say, Vernon?
[bleep] damn it, brother.
I've been waiting nine years to do this.
I came back to get the gold.
That's it.
We're ready to turn everything on
and finally start making some money.
Good.
Hey!
We're almost there.
Nothing has changed in 100 years,
and everybody that's out here mining is crazy.
Oh, man, you need to be able to do this yourself.
Not me.
Well, what are you doing on the boat, man?
Everything's all [bleep] up.
There's only one thing that puts a smile on my face,
make some gold.
Whoo!
Somebody on this [bleep] boat is going to die.
-Yeah. -Oh, my God.
I got a fever.
Gold fever.
That somebody hasn't already.
-[man speaking] -Hell yeah.
It's only by the grace of whatever God exists.
Pow!