[Dustin Hurt] Well, here we go again.
[Carlos Minor exclaims]
[Wes Richardson] Careful.
- [Carlos] Thanks you. - [Wes] You all right?
[James Hamm] What the hell?
This is not good, we're in the danger zone.
[Carlos] Oh, [bleep], it's a landslide.
Holy crap, dude!
Look at that.
The realization of how scary this creek actually is, huh?
[Carlos] Anybody could've been right there, man!
[Dustin] Yeah.
[Carlos] Holy [bleep], man, boulder.
Oh, [bleep].
[Dustin] We can't go this way!
[Wes] Nah.
- [Dustin] We need to get out of here. - [Wes] Yeah.
[Dustin] This is not a safe place.
Just starting.
[Dustin] Forget this, we need to get the [bleep] out of here.
[Carlos] Wes, we gotta go!
[James] This whole [bleep] mountain's a slide right now.
This whole thing's going.
Oh, [bleep]!
[Kayla Johanson] Water's definitely picking up.
[Paul Richardson] She's angry today!
[Dustin] Can't get me!
It's impossible!
Mother nature gave us a big box with a pink ribbon,
and the tag says,
"For miners, it's all up to you."
[Kayla] I want to go back to actual goldmining.
We're gonna get [bleep] done.
[bleep] damn it!
[Scott Allen] Throw the weight vest on, throw the mask on,
and start sucking up some of that gold.
If you stay with it,
this is what you're gonna find.
[laughs]
[Dustin] Got snow on the top of the mountains last night.
Call that termination dust.
That's how it begins.
Freak me out, y'all.
[narrator] At Nugget Creek...
[Dustin] How high do you think that was?
[Wes] I think that peak is, like, 6,000 feet.
[narrator] ...the first signs of winter looming.
[Dustin] At 6,000, you know what that means?
Here it comes.
[narrator] Dustin Hurt has invested every penny to his name
on his new Nugget Creek claim
and has just weeks to dig his way out from financial ruin.
[Dustin] I don't know if we have enough time left.
We need to find gold, and the only way you find gold
is if you're looking for it.
We're just moving rocks.
It's time to start dredging.
I don't want this to be my last season.
[narrator] Just over a week ago,
a 40-year storm hit Nugget Creek.
This place is destroyed.
Everything we have is underwater right now.
Get out! We gotta go!
[narrator] The surge redirected the creek,
exposing a large area of prime real estate beneath
a 100,000-pound boulder.
[Dustin] Loving it.
[narrator] And James proved
there is good gold to be found.
[Carlos] Are you [bleep] kidding me?
Nice job!
[Dustin] James found some gold.
Everyone's always said it's up here.
It's so hard to get to, we know that now.
Just gotta keep working at this.
[narrator] Now, they just need to clear
the rest of the overburden
down to the proven gold-rich pay layer.
[Dustin] There's gotta be gold here.
Nobody's been here, I can tell.
All this stuff's locked up.
Hold on a minute.
I've got an idea.
This is what we do.
See that little waterfall right there?
Get that water over here.
[Carlos] Hell yeah!
[Wes] We've got a plan,
we're setting up our dredge hose
to catch this water flow,
and we're just gonna kinda
concentrate the gravel down a little bit.
[Dustin] Couldn't get these big rocks to move.
Decided to dig them out with water.
Calling it reverse dredging.
[narrator] Dustin's plan,
use the dredge hose to harness the power of the creek
to break free the rocks so they can rapidly clear
the worthless top eight feet.
Then flood the hole
so they can dredge down to bedrock.
[Wes] Normally, the hose we would use,
it's like a big vacuum, and we'll suck up gold through the dredge.
What we're actually trying to do right now
is just make some area around these boulders
so we can pop them apart,
get them downstream, and they're out of here.
[Dustin] Well, the reverse dredging is definitely digging a hole
faster than we could.
Look how weird that is on land.
I've done this 1,000 times underwater, man.
I've dug it, I've never really got to see it sometimes.
It's just stuck.
Maybe we can get this one out.
Look at that!
[James] The water's carved a hole behind it.
This should fall now.
All right.
[Dustin] Wes, we got some pulling to do over here.
[James] Yeah!
Whoo-hoo!
We are kicking [bleep].
[Kayla] The faster we get this done, the better.
[narrator] Up creek, Kayla and her crew
are also in a race against time.
This is for the small dredge.
- [Kayla] I'll do that as diver one. - Okay.
[narrator] To get to bedrock before the winter freeze,
Kayla will use two divers
to double their output.
Today we're gonna have Scott and Justin in the water.
Hopefully they can make a lot of progress.
We really need to see some gold,
and we need to see it soon.
Hey, how deep is it there?
Maybe three feet
as of yesterday afternoon.
I'm excited to be dredging today.
The water looks really good.
I'll get to be moving some rocks.
It's gonna be a good day.
[Scott] I think it's time to go full suit.
Throw the weight vest on, throw the hood on,
throw the mask on, and get in.
And start sucking up some of that gold.
[Kayla] You're gonna be on this side,
he's gonna be on the outer side.
So you want to go ahead and go this way.
[Justin] Definitely nice to be back in the water and moving material.
[Kayla] Scott, look at this.
[narrator] Two weeks ago...
That's clay, that'd lock in gold
like a [bleep] vice, wouldn't it?
[narrator] ...Kayla's crew were inches from bedrock...
...but the storm surge filled their dive hole...
[Kayla] Tie off the dredge!
[Scott] [bleep] trying!
Ain't showing any kind of stopping,
and it's still racing.
[narrator] ...undoing months worth of work
in just hours.
Now Kayla will fight back
using two dredges and two divers
to clear 10 feet of gravel
between them and the gold nuggets on bedrock.
[Justin Peterson] There's a lot of rocks, they're wedged tight.
Whew.
[Justin] Can I use it to pry them open?
- [Scott] Here you go. - [Justin] Ah, yeah.
Thank you, Scott.
So now Paul's working on the winch.
Hopefully we can get that going.
In the meantime, I'm the only tender
for both people in the water right now.
So I have to make sure I'm paying attention.
[narrator] One diver is usually tended
by a three person crew.
Kayla risks running vital fuel, air, and hot water
for two divers on her own.
[Kayla] How you doing, Justin?
[Justin] Lots of stuff going in the nozzle.
[Scott] Oh, did something just happen with my hot water?
What's up?
[Scott] Something isn't right, I'm getting cold water pumped in.
[Kayla] Cold water?
[Scott] It went from warm to cold really fast.
I thought I was just getting flushed,
but I could feel it, like, everywhere.
[Paul] I smell burning exhaust hose.
[Kayla] Yeah, now I smell it, Paul.
[Scott] [bleep] this [bleep].
I'm calling it until that thing's right.
I get bursts of hot water,
and last time I got that, I almost got burned.
Something's wrong there.
That's steam! Look at that [bleep]!
[narrator] A malfunction on Scott's hot water system
could give him third-degree burns.
[Kayla] That's so weird.
That is very weird.
[Scott] I don't trust that.
There's something clogging up the umbilical,
which is causing the water to go back in through the system,
and since it's recirculating itself,
it's overheating.
With having hot water issues,
someone could get seriously injured or burned,
and I'm not gonna stand around
and watch that happen on my watch.
[narrator] Scott switches to manhandling rocks
while diver, Justin, soldiers on alone.
[Justin] We're a man down now,
and it's kind of my time to shine.
Today hopefully we might be able to see some gold soon.
We're at a point in the season where we can't quit,
we can't call it an early day just because
one of the dredges wasn't working properly.
We still have to keep going because if we don't,
we're not gonna make it by the end of the season.
Hopefully we'll get to bedrock really soon
and hopefully all this effort isn't gonna be wasted,
and we're actually gonna find gold.
[Dustin] Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait.
- Wait, wait. - [James] What? What? What?
[Dustin] What is that?
[bleep] did that look like gold to me.
[James] I know, it looked like one.
[Carlos] Damn it!
[narrator] Reverse dredging has helped Dustin
remove a ton of the material
blocking their path to bedrock.
[Dustin] So we open this up, and we're getting to dredging, buddy.
[Wes] I know.
[Dustin] Don't get got.
[straining]
[Dustin] Watch your toes.
[James] Whole pile's gonna come down.
Oh, [bleep]! [laughs]
[bleep]
Yeah, baby!
We found water!
[laughs]
Coming through.
Let's, uh, see if we can get rid of this rock
before this wall comes down on us, all right?
[Carlos] It's gonna eat this whole thing up, dude.
It's all gonna come down.
Whoo!
[Dustin] Break some [bleep], Carlos.
Don't be afraid of it.
What's the worst that could happen?
[bleep]
Can't get me!
It's impossible!
[James] Wow, that's gonna flow out anytime too.
[Dustin] How about we take control of the situation?
I think this is useless right now.
Go open that up
and let nature do its thing and see what happens.
[Wes] Yeah, I agree
because that flow is getting bigger,
and that's the last thing anybody needs
to be down here working and that [bleep] goes...
[imitates rocks falling]
- All right. - ...because you wouldn't get out from underneath it.
[Dustin] Let's wreck some [bleep]!
[Carlos] Yeah.
[narrator] Dustin's new plan,
remove the rocks next to big ass boulder
to redirect the creek
and use the force of the current
to clear out the remaining overburden
so they can float the dredge
and suck up all the gold-rich gravel towards bedrock.
We're just gonna get loco with it,
put water up above and just let it clear it out.
Just gotta go with the flow, amigo.
What are we doing?
Gonna open that up the best we can.
- [Carlos] Oh, oh, oh. Yeah! - [James] Nice!
Perfect.
[Dustin] Once that [bleep] opens up,
it's gonna really start moving on you.
- [James] Yeah. - [Dustin] Don't get caught.
[James exclaims]
[Dustin] Come on, it's about to go underwater, so...
...keep it going.
Yeah.
That a boy.
Holy [bleep].
[Carlos] Hey!
[Dustin] You can do better than that.
[Carlos] Let it go.
[James] Oh, it's picking up speed now.
[Carlos] There it goes!
[all exclaiming]
[Dustin] Do your thing, baby.
[Wes] There she blows.
That's what I'm looking for right there.
We'll know in the morning
whether we did the right thing or not.
[Carlos] There's no danger anymore, man.
- No. - All we gotta do is just...
- ...dredge. - [Dustin] Love it.
[narrator] Up ahead...
Water's definitely picking up.
- [Scott] Yeah, quickly. - [Justin] Yeah, it is.
[Paul] She's angry today!
[Dustin] Been raining all night, gonna go check on the dredges.
Oh, [bleep].
Can't go this way! This is not a safe place.
[Kayla] All right, Justin, I think you should be clear.
[narrator] High up Nugget Creek,
[Justin] That feels awesome.
[Kayla] Give it a second before you suck anything else
'cause there's tons of rocks coming through
- that were in the way. - [Justin] I just have it turned up and open. So...
[narrator] Justin is diving solo
after the water system on the second dredge failed.
[Justin] Might check out some more of those rocks.
[Kayla] No gold, no dinner
[Justin] Moving them by hand only does so much.
We won't see bedrock any time soon.
[narrator] An operational winch system
is the only chance that Kayla has
to see bedrock gold this season.
[Paul] Is it just me, or there's water in here?
[Kayla] Are you kidding me?
[Justin] Got more rocks to move.
Feeling productive.
[Kayla] Hopefully we can get that going.
We really need that winch working today
because there's a lot of bigger rocks
in the bottom of the hole that really need to be moved
to make more progress as far as depth goes.
Once that winch is moving,
it'll be full speed ahead.
[Paul] It's clicking, but it ain't going.
Did you put the brushes back in it?
No.
[Kayla] That might help.
[Scott laughs]
[Paul] Now we got the motor back on the winch,
uh,
I think all we got left to do
is Scott's gotta put the little brushes back in the motor.
Once he does that,
hopefully we get a winch that'll work.
[Scott] Alley-oop
All you.
All right, here we go.
Yeah, we're back in business.
[Kayla] Justin, basket, where do you want it?
[Justin] Right here.
[Kayla] Now that we have that winch working again,
we'll be able to move rocks non-stop all day long
from here on out.
[Scott] I'm so happy Paul came through today
and was able to get that winch motor swapped out.
We don't have a working winch system,
might as well go home.
That was the victory that we needed today.
Right now water's come up a pretty good amount
since we've been here today.
[narrator] Six hours into his dive...
[Justin] It's about probably five foot.
[Paul] Oh, [bleep], got some depth going.
[Justin] A little bit, yeah.
[narrator] ...Justin's got them two feet closer to bedrock gold.
But the rain keeps coming,
and Nugget Creek keeps rising.
[Kayla] We'll go ahead and call it.
We gotta tidy this dredge up.
[Justin] Okay.
[narrator] After last week's super storm...
[Kayla] Pull it forward and tie it up somewhere.
[narrator] ...Kayla's crew takes no chances.
[Paul] Justin, come here, pull on this.
[Justin straining]
Go for it.
Let's get that other dredge up.
- Ready? - [Paul] Yes.
[Scott] Yeah.
[Paul] She's angry today!
Both winches are wrapped.
[Kayla] Thank you.
Water's definitely picking up.
[Scott] Yeah, quickly.
[Justin] Yeah, it is.
[Paul] I can barely hold on going across.
She's coming, she's coming.
[Scott] Watch your leg, Paul.
- Think we should be safe with that. - [Kayla] How does that look?
[Paul] I feel much better now.
We got both dredges
up and out of harm's way.
[Kayla] We got the winches wrapped up,
we got the dredges up.
All we can do is just hope for the best.
Hopefully, it doesn't get too much worse.
[thunder rumbling]
It's been raining all night.
We gotta go check on the dredges.
[Carlos exclaims]
[Wes] Careful, you all right?
- It's slippery. - [Carlos] Yeah, watch out for those roots.
[Dustin exclaims]
Ooh.
[Wes] Good thing we got everything up here high.
[Dustin] Right?
Won't be walking up there.
Oh, man!
There's a landslide. Holy crap, dude!
[James] What the hell?
This is not good, we're in the danger zone.
[thunder rumbling]
[Wes] Oh, listen to that.
[Carlos] [bleep] You hear it?
- Hear the thunder? - Oh, [bleep].
You see it, right?
[Wes] Yeah.
[Carlos] Damn, dude.
That could've happened to anybody right there.
God, really?
Holy [bleep], dude.
[Dustin] Yeah, we don't want to be down there anymore.
[Carlos] Anybody could've been right there, man.
[Dustin] Yeah.
[Kayla] Whoa, whoa, watch out!
[narrator] A year ago...
[Kayla] Whoa, whoa, whoa!
[Paul] Run, run, run!
- Get up here, guys! Get up here! - [Kayla] Go!
[narrator] ...a landslide at McKinley Creek
nearly killed the miners and the film crew.
Now the rain-soaked high walls of Nugget Creek
that turned their dive site into a death trap.
We're not hanging out down here.
This is what I was talking about right here.
- [Wes] Yeah. - This can happen...
- [Wes] And trap us. - [Dustin] ...anywhere anytime here.
[James] Holy [bleep].
The realization of how scary this creek actually is, huh?
[Carlos] Holy [bleep], man, boulders.
Holy [bleep].
[Dustin] I need to get out there.
[Wes] It's still there.
That dredge is remarkably okay.
[Dustin] I kinda figured.
We need to take the high road.
[Wes] He wants to go on the high road.
[Dustin] You can't go this way.
[Wes] Nah.
- [Dustin] We need to get out of here. - [Wes] Yeah.
[Dustin] This is not a safe place.
Get out.
[Wes] Yeah, that's some serious [bleep].
Look at that just starting.
[Carlos] Wes, let's go man!
[Dustin] Yeah, dude, forget this.
[Carlos] I know, we gotta go, dude!
[Wes] Yeah, we need to get out of here.
There's a waterfall starting on the other side even,
this is crazy.
[James] This whole [bleep] mountain's a slide right now.
[Carlos] Oh, yeah. This whole [bleep] mountain can go, dude.
[Dustin] Oh, yeah.
[James] Oh, [bleep].
[Carlos] Would've been better taking the freaking low road.
[Wes] Careful.
[Carlos] Somebody could've been on top of this
or somebody could've been in the bottom of this.
[James] This whole thing's going.
Oh, [bleep].
Oh!
[Wes] [bleep] is getting serious.
[James] Careful, Wes.
That [bleep] going.
Dude.
[Wes] Oh, my gosh. That's insane, right?
[James] Ain't it supposed to rain all night?
- [Wes] Yep. - [James] Oh, man.
Bye-bye, campsite.
They're expecting this rain to continue for a couple days.
So I assume
the, uh, dive site that we have
is not gonna be recognizable by the time we get back.
I think all the walls are gonna start to slip off...
...and, uh, we're not gonna be there when the walls slip.
When the saturation goes down, we can return,
but until then...
...we're just in a holding pattern right now because
not gonna risk the life of my people.
That high road is completely gone,
slid off at one place.
- Oh, [bleep]. - [Dustin] It was a death zone.
I don't want to lay down the law,
but I don't want anybody out there anymore.
Uh, you're gonna die.
[Kayla] Well, we got our stuff pretty much locked down.
We got both the dredges pulled up and out of the water.
Both the winches are tied up.
Um, so I mean, it's as best as we can do.
This has been the hardest season I've ever had, man.
[Paul] I agree with you.
[Dustin] I can't believe what's happening here.
It's like the gold gods don't want us here.
Ah, [bleep] it. Let's get out of here.
[Carlos] If Dustin says that we need to get out of here
before things get bad, we need to go now.
[narrator] The crew has only just recovered
from the last big storm.
Now once again,
they're forced to escape to town
down the raging Tsirku River.
We're gonna hop on the airboat,
and we're gonna try to get out of here
before the Tsirku river comes up any more.
We get stranded out here,
no telling how long we'll be stranded out here
with no supplies or anything.
Well, that stuff's moving, huh?
Y'all see this?
[James] The weather is the worst I've ever seen.
It is flooding, landslides...
Everything's dangerous that's going on out here.
It's time to go.
Everybody on.
Everybody got their stuff?
Let's go!
- Whoo! - [bleep], yeah.
[Dustin] Nugget Creek is not like McKinley Creek.
Uh, we get floods, but it's nothing like this.
We've been out here working for three months,
and still no gold.
[narrator] After risking his life and all his savings
on Nugget Creek,
Dustin is in desperate need of answers.
I thought I'd come talk to the previous owner.
He knows a lot about this place.
He's owned it for a very long time
before I got ahold of it.
I need to know what I'm looking for,
what it's supposed to look like.
See if he's got any information
and pick his brain and find out.
Maybe he can help me.
- [Al] Hey. - Hey, Al. How's it going?
[Al] Yeah, about time. How's the weather treating you, bud?
- Ugh, awful. - [chuckles]
Nugget Creek is not the place I would wanna be right now.
[narrator] For nearly half a century,
Al Gilliam has braved the treacherous and deadly terrain
of the Chilkat Mountains.
After working as a logger, prospector,
and professional hunting guide,
his knowledge of the area is second to none.
The weather's beating me.
You could not have picked a worse year to start up here.
[Dustin] That's what I hear.
This has been an obscenely wet year.
[Al] It's the wettest I've seen.
[Dustin] How long have you been here?
[Al] I got here in spring of '76.
I've never seen anything like this.
- In 46 years? - No.
This is a lot of water.
I just really wanted you guys to see
some of those big nuggets up there this year.
[Dustin] I really want to see them too, man.
[Al] Tell me, is the job gonna be bigger than you are,
or are you gonna be able to stay with it?
[Dustin] Uh, I'm...
Strangely enough, I'm hard to kill.
We got these holes dug down right now
and just non-stop rain,
and there's nothing I can do about it.
Destroy some of my stuff, and I would rebuild that
and get set up again, and by the time we're re-set-up,
it literally floods the next day.
[Al] Well, the Old Timers, they mined up down from below.
Don't expect to find gold until you get down to bedrock.
- [Dustin] Okay. - And when you get close to bedrock,
you're gonna find a layer.
It's usually anywhere from that deep to that thick,
and it's just all rusted, reddish-colored,
and it's all bound together tight.
It actually looks like the false bottom,
and the big nuggets are gonna be on the bottom.
If you stay with it...
...this is what you're gonna find.
That weighs slightly over four ounces.
There you are. It's very, very good gold.
- [Dustin] That's awesome. - [Al] Yeah.
[Dustin] Well, I'm still looking for it.
[Al] Well, it sounds to me
like if anybody's gonna make it up there, you're going to.
The gold is there. Best of luck to you.
Stay safe. Stay alive.
- [Dustin] Well, thanks for all the info. - All right. Bye-bye.
[Dustin] Uh, I just had a good meeting.
Al just informed me that there's a rust layer of false bedrock.
We haven't found that yet,
so that's probably why we're not finding nuggets.
That's where all the big gold is.
Gotta get out of here.
Now it's time to get to work.
[narrator] The storm clouds finally retreating...
Once again, Dustin and the crews
head back to survey the damage.
All right, let's get in sight, see what we got.
Anybody taking bets on whether the dredge is still there, though?
Don't go through there fast.
Landslide. Oh, [bleep].
That's a lot of [bleep].
[Paul] I would have never expected this.
I figured these walkways were safe.
[Kayla] Dang.
[Paul] Well, you would not wanna be walking on that when it let go.
Where did all these big rocks come from?
- [Kayla] I know, they're everywhere. - [Paul] Oh, wow.
[narrator] At Kayla's, her crew get a first look
at the havoc Mother Nature has wreaked.
Wow.
Holy [bleep].
[Kayla] It looks completely different.
We gotta start completely over again.
We need to definitely start moving some rocks,
'cause we have nowhere to put the dredge.
Unbelievable.
I think that was the best plan we could have ever done,
was prepared and get our dredges up on dry ground,
because now, we still got two dredges to go back into the water with.
You know, we live to dredge another day.
[narrator] Both dredges and winch systems survived.
But the raging river has ripped through their dive hole...
...filling it with huge rocks
and smashing apart their downstream dam.
[Kayla] This is the third or fourth time now
that we're starting over from scratch.
And it's really frustrating,
but I think we've got it down to a system now.
We're really fast at recuperating.
I wanna go back to actual gold mining when I find actual gold.
That's what I wanna do.
Today, we're gonna get [bleep] done.
[Justin] So, this is where I was dredging last week,
and it was roughly just height of me.
And now, it's maybe a foot.
We've got all these large rocks that have washed out,
either came from up high
or just cleaned out from the kitty litter and stuff,
but it's a drastic change to the place.
[narrator] To get the dredges back in safe harbor,
the dam needs to be rebuilt
to raise the water.
[Kayla] We need to focus on the [bleep] back here,
'cause this is where the dredges need to float.
The rest of it, we could do later.
This will raise the water level up.
[Paul] I'm so glad our winches are still working.
Fast way to move a lot of rock and pretty quickly.
Now only are we getting rocks out of our way,
but as we build the dam up, it's raising our water level.
So if we get the water level where we can actually float the two dredges,
then it's back to getting those in and seeing if we can get a diver in the water.
[Justin] The winch is doing their job.
We've got some...
We've got some big rocks here moved.
The dam's coming along
for the third time.
Maybe it's a charm.
Still a lot of work to do, so...
Hopefully, that means good going forward.
[narrator] This season, storms have continued
to hit Nugget Creek in quick succession.
Kayla must race to rebuild and dredge to bedrock
before the next one strikes.
[Kayla] We're making pretty good progress today.
We're getting our dam rebuilt.
We've moved a lot of rock already.
Trying to get these last ones moved real quick.
[Scott] That's a beast of a rock.
- [laughs] - [Justin] [bleep], yeah.
Get Paul and I in the water and move a lot of material.
Hopefully, we can make some really good progress,
hit bedrock soon.
Yeah, yeah.
There you go.
Oh my [bleep].
Couple of landslides came down.
[narrator] Down creek, Dustin Hurt prepares for the worst.
Oh!
Watch out, it's gonna tilt.
[Wes] Look at this.
[Carlos] Oh, [bleep].
- [Wes] Holy crap, dude. - [Carlos] Holy crap.
- Oh, [bleep]. - Holy crap.
- Wow. - Wow.
[narrator] After being hit by the second storm in as many weeks,
Dustin Hurt assesses the damage.
Oh my [bleep], look up there.
Look underneath them gold gates.
Holy smokes.
- Holy [bleep]. - We got bedrocks right here, guys.
Hey, Dustin, come look at this.
[narrator] The previous storm diverted the creek to the far side,
leaving the near side dry.
- Oh my [bleep], look at this. - It's amazing.
[narrator] This time, the storm surge crested over Big Ass Boulder...
...and cleared away eight feet of rocks and gravel
from under Nugget Creek's best gold trap.
- Has anybody been underneath that rock? - I doubt it.
Hey, Dustin, what do you think? Dredge here?
[Carlos] This is perfect for the end of a season.
This is perfect.
So you're gonna dredge underneath that giant rock?
Along with those other rocks in there?
What happens when you dredge underneath those other rocks?
Next year, this is gonna be filled back in, man.
[Wes] It'll be filled in, yeah.
This is the perfect time.
Did this [bleep] set us up or what?
[Carlos] The wheels are turning in Dustin's head for what to do.
Mother Nature freaking gave us a big box with a pink ribbon,
and a tag says,
"For miners, it's all up to you.
It's all yours, amigos. All yours."
The water did exactly what I wanted it to do.
But it exposed a little bit more than I thought it would.
What these guys wanna do is go underneath this big, giant boulder right here.
And I'll admit, I want to as well.
If we're gonna dig underneath a gigantic boulder,
there's gonna be some huge risk involved.
If we go down here...
...there's less danger, but less chance of big gold.
Bigger chance of bigger gold up here,
but higher danger.
What do you do?
Decision time.
[narrator] Dustin's plan was always to start with the safer ground
20 feet downstream
and work his way up
towards the 50-ton boulder.
This is one big sluice box right here.
It's a no-brainer.
[Wes] Just the bedrock and follow the bedrock down.
That could be the payday we've been looking for forever,
and Mother Nature set us up for it.
[Dustin] All right.
You talked me into it.
Yeah?
We're gonna give it a go.
- Oh, I'm excited about this! - I know, me too.
- [bleeps] - [Dustin] All right, you got me convinced.
- [bleep] - [laughs]
[sighs]
[Dustin] I think we should bury this up,
make a little wall right there.
- We'll put the dredge in the water. - Yep.
Start her up.
Start dredging here and straight into there.
[narrator] Dustin now plans to mine directly beneath
what the miners have dubbed "Big Ass Boulder."
First, he'll build a dam with rocks,
then flood the area so he can float a dredge.
The diver can then get beneath the boulder
and dredge down to bedrock
and a season-saving payday.
- All right, Carlos. - Yes, sir.
Make me a wall right here.
[Carlos] Wall right here, I got it.
[Dustin] Originally, we were gonna dig right here.
Now, this is where we're gonna set the dredge
and dig up there.
This is our last effort.
If there's no gold right here, we're not gonna get any gold this season.
We're putting all of our eggs in one basket right now.
It better be a damn good basket.
- We need to get these dredges floating. - [Paul] All right.
And then once we get those in,
- I'll change into my suit. - All right.
[narrator] The downstream dam repaired...
...Kayla's crew have raised the water levels high enough
to get their dredges back in the creek.
[Kayla] I'm gonna get in the water,
starting up by the bedrock wall.
Then Paul's gonna get in the water as well.
That way, we can both be in, moving lots of material
and hopefully make lots of progress.
Let's go.
So far, so good.
Got two dredges floating again.
[Justin] Nice to see two dredges back in the water.
We just gotta get set up quickly and get the divers in
so we can maybe see a little color, little gold.
I'd like to see some eventually.
[bleep]
[Paul] [bleep] current is strong.
[Kayla] That should be good.
- [Paul] Right there? - [Kayla] Yeah.
So where are we at now?
I think we're just about ready to fire all the dredges up.
[narrator] Last dive, the heating system on one of the dredges malfunctioned.
To make sure nobody gets burned,
they need to test their repair.
[Paul] So, I just swapped the fittings.
I put the intake on the front, the outtake on the back.
It seems to be going pretty good now. Yep.
Try to get it in, see if we can get some, uh...
...more rock and boulders out of our way.
See if we can get some depth going
so we can actually do some good dredging.
[narrator] Before this storm set Kayla's crew back,
they were five feet down, halfway to bedrock gold.
[Kayla] Starting a new haul always sucks.
[Paul] It does.
We were pulling the first basket of rocks.
[bleep] Damn it! I'm done.
[narrator] On Nugget Creek...
- That water took out a lot of stuff for us. - Yeah, it did.
[narrator] ...gold fever has set in.
This is how deep the material was.
You could see the water level right here,
'cause the moss stops right there.
And then you can see it underneath that big boulder.
The moss level stops there.
That is gonna have gold, dude.
[Wes] Yeah, it is. There is no way it's not.
This particular creek is known for large gold.
Because it's such a steep terrain,
we know there's huge nuggets,
so that's what we're after at this site right here.
This is where we get gold.
[Kayla] Starting a new haul always sucks.
[Paul] It does.
[Scott] We're pulling the first batch of the rocks.
[bleep] Damn it! I'm done.
[Justin] Line broke.
It's not a good thing.
[Paul] Hell did you do to break the rope?
That rope shouldn't break.
[narrator] At Kayla's, a broken winch rope could set them back hours.
[Paul] It just needs a regular figure eight.
- [Kayla] You wanna go fix it? - [Paul] I'm gonna have to.
Slip that through there.
[Justin] We good? Okay.
Hopefully, hopefully, this is the last of it.
Hopefully, this just works from here.
[Kayla] Got it! [laughs]
We got the winch lines working again.
We'll live to dredge another day.
[Paul] All right, crank it up!
[Scott] If we have any hope of hitting bedrock at all
and actually getting some gold,
we don't need any more hang-ups.
We don't need any more setbacks.
We gotta have everything working every day.
But you know what?
This winch line will get us to bedrock.
This winch line will get us to gold.
Oh, that's a decent-size rock.
[Paul] Current's definitely picked up on us.
[Kayla] It has.
[Scott] Yeah, you're laying down there getting a massage
from that [bleep] current.
The [bleep] current is that strong.
It's starting to get deep. We got some depth going.
[narrator] After four hours battling the current...
- I'm [bleep] done. - [Kayla] Me too.
[narrator] ...Paul calls it.
Today went good.
We got one nice hole going right now.
We're probably five feet deep.
So we're right back to where we were at before the flood.
[Kayla] I don't expect to see any gold right now.
This is the first day starting a new haul.
But it never hurts to check.
Nothing.
Hopefully, within the next couple days,
we can hit some bedrock and see a lot of gold.
James got her going good right there. Holy [bleep].
That looks nice.
- I think the dredge should go in. - Let's do it.
[narrator] With their dam complete...
It's time to put the dredge in.
Float the boat!
[narrator] ...Dustin is one step closer to getting a diver back in the water.
All right, uh, tie off the pulley to where it's up high.
- [Carlos] I gotcha. - And you're gonna drag the forward momentum.
So yeah, as soon as he lets us get slack there,
- we'll pull this off and put it over here. - Please.
[narrator] It's a 20-foot haul to get the dredge to the pool.
All right, is that enough?
One winch?
Let's see if we can get a little forward momentum.
Oh, there it goes.
Oh, yeah.
- Whoo-hoo! It's working. - [Dustin] I know.
- That'll work. - Just keep going. Hold on, hold on.
Let me get ahead.
Now we're gonna just ease it into our freaking pool.
[Dustin] Hold up!
- Boo. - Ugh, that sucks. It's dragging that rock.
Now would be the time to use the skyline.
- [Carlos] Yeah. - Yeah.
Disconnect, go hook it back up, bring me a headache ball.
Right now, we're trying to drag rocks.
We don't want it to do that, 'cause we'll disturb the wheel we just made.
So I think we can pick the other side of the dredge up,
get it level and just kinda just snake it right in there real easy-like.
She's gonna move, like, really move, so...
James, I need you to come along just in case.
- Right. - Perfect.
[Carlos chuckles] It's perfect, man.
[Dustin] Go upstream a little bit more.
[Carlos] Oh, it's perfect!
[Dustin] All stop.
James, disconnect.
- We got it! - [giggles]
[Dustin] You gotta go upstream.
[Carlos chuckles]
- Yes! - Let it down.
That'll do it.
Just barely long enough though, man.
What do you mean? It's perfect.
Well, we didn't get much play room.
- [chuckles] - Holy cow.
Dredge is in the water, Carlos!
[Carlos] Dredge is back in the water.
The dredge is in and, uh, it's a little tight there.
But it's working.
Now it's time to start it up and see what's in this rock.
Well, if there's no gold there,
this is our last season here.
These are decisions that echo through everybody's lives here.
I make the wrong decision...
...everybody goes home broke.
- Come on! Let's go. - Fire it up.
[Carlos] James, get in the dredge, man!
This is where we get going, bro.
This is where we get going.
Come on, baby.
[Dustin] Gotta get the flap completely underwater.
- There's a hole right there. - Ah, [bleep].
- That's what you're doing. It's right there. - Damn it.
God [bleep]!
[narrator] Manhandling the hose has caused a crack
right beside the dredge nozzle.
- Argh! - Hey, Wes! Where's that cellophane at?
I ran out of tape, so what we have is this stretchy wrap stuff.
And if I can't seal off this hose, it's probably gonna suck it right in.
[chuckles] But I don't have anything else, so we're gonna try it.
There you go.
Nozzle up.
This is a first, man.
- That is a first. - Holy crap.
We're desperate to get ahold of...
[all chuckling]
[Carlos] Well, let's see if that works, man.
[Dustin] Yeah, see if it works.
There it is! We got it!
Oh, man.
- Seriously? - We got it! [laughs]
- We're dredging! - The cellophane worked.
- [laughs] - Try to get this over here, too.
[Dustin] I can't believe that worked.
I'm pretty happy with the way everything got set up now.
Got the dredge back in the water,
got enough boulders moved,
got enough water flow to make our dredge work.
Game on, now.
[James] I couldn't be happier.
It's a weird way, what we're doing.
I didn't expect this to happen this way.
But underneath this big, giant boulder,
I got a feeling that there's a lot of gold
and this could change our lives.
[narrator] On the next Gold Rush: White Water...
[bleep], let's go!
Scott, I have to have you communicate.
We aren't quitters. We're not gonna give up.
Hopefully, we see some really good gold.
We're not gonna have a hole again in a minute.
[Carlos] We can't catch a freaking break!
Why can't we dredge in the Bahamas?
Somewhere nice and warm.
[Kayla] I am tired of your [bleep] attitude.
[Scott] I [bleep] work my [bleep] into the dirt for her,
- Is she firing me? Yep. - She said that?
We need to regroup, 'cause we're on a steady path to destruction here.
- Whoa! - [bleep]
When the water bleeds, you are so close to gold.
I'm excited that you're diving.
I'm more excited that I think you're gonna get gold.