[Kayla Johanson] I am tired of your [bleep] attitude.
[Scott Allen] Can't believe I worked that hard and she's like that.
I put my heart and soul into this. That's all there is to it.
We are all away from the things that we love
and the people that we love to be here.
He is not the only one making a sacrifice.
He pulled [bleep] like this last year, and...
...I could've easily just let Dustin fire him.
And he seems to [bleep] forget
that he didn't have a job.
How this is gonna end, I can't really answer that at the moment.
I can't take it anymore.
[narrator] After battling their new claim for the last three months,
the crew has precious little gold,
pushing the miners to their breaking point.
[Scott] I[bleep] worked my[bleep] into the dirt for her.
- [Scott] She fired me. - [man] She said that?
[man] You'll be all right, bro.
You gotta be the bigger man on this one.
[Scott] Nice talk. I'm outta here.
[Carlos Minor] That's the temper talk, amigo. That's the temper talk.
At the end of the season, we hate each other,
there's no gold to bring us together.
[Scott] This is what separates the men from the boys right here.
[Scott] There's a lot of organic coming out.
[Dustin Hurt] Water's coming up real quick.
Come on out.
Whoa! Whoa.
- [Scott] [bleep] no! - [Kayla] Scott!
Wheeled in!
How about you [bleep] go back to camp?
I'm not here to scream. I'm here to work.
It's not easy for any of us to be here.
This is hard damn work. We all know it.
[Dustin] I'm excited that you're diving.
I'm more excited that I think you're gonna get gold.
[laughing]
When the water bleeds, you're so close to gold.
[all cheering]
[Dustin] Oh, look at the snow.
It's getting cold, y'all.
Snow in the mountains.
Freezing down here.
[narrator] Two-thirds of the way through the season,
Mine boss Dustin Hurt
has just weeks left to secure a fortune in gold,
and his future on Nugget Creek
before winter hits.
[Dustin] All right, uh, well, let's suit up.
We all know we need waders, right?
There's a red layer down there,
somewhere that we haven't really seen yet.
- [Dustin] And, uh, that's where the gold is. - Yeah.
[narrator] Last week, after a string of disasters,
Dustin sought help from former claim owner Al Gilliam.
It's been the hardest digging year I've ever had.
Don't expect to find gold until you get down to bedrock.
You're gonna find a layer and it's just all rusted reddish color,
and it's all bound together tight.
If you stay with it,
this is what you're gonna find.
[Dustin chuckles]
[narrator] Armed with new intel...
Oh, my[bleep]! Look up there!
Look underneath the gold gates.
[narrator] ...Dustin finally catches a break.
Did this[bleep] set us up or what?
[narrator] In a stroke of good luck,
the storm has left a perfect dive spot
in the shadow of a monster granite boulder.
The water did exactly what I wanted it to do.
This is one big sluice box right here.
[narrator] Buried somewhere beneath
is a layer of rust-colored hardpack.
Inside is a pay streak
that promises to run all the way down to bedrock.
Dustin could be on the brink of striking it rich.
[Dustin] I've been trying to dig a hole all season.
Weather won't cooperate, and, uh,
sun's up for the first time in a long time,
so hopefully, with any luck, today's our day.
Whatever it is,
it happens out here.
We are so invested we have to keep going.
Keep digging a hole.
We'll get it done,
gonna find some gold.
Ah, [bleep].
Man, that's a lot of water here.
[bleep] sake.
What?
All our water dribbled down.
[Dustin] You have got to be kidding me.
Water level came down, now we have to float the dredge
to make it work again.
The dredge is sitting on dry land right now,
it's not dredging, so we're not getting gold.
This is not a good thing.
[narrator] Overnight, water levels dropped after temperatures plunged
to below 30 degrees,
freezing the runoff and grounding their dredge.
[Wes Richardson] That needs some serious [bleep] work.
[Dustin] Think I got an idea.
See if we can block it off with a little bit of plastic, maybe.
[narrator] To catch gold,
The sluice needs to rest between four and eight degrees.
And the only way to ensure that
is to fill the pond and float the dredge.
So, I just wanna get the water level up, that's all I really need.
So I just figured, I've got this plastic.
We throw it on there, when we get done, we can pull it right out
and take it down with us, but for now,
we're gonna use it to our advantage
and get our water level up a little bit.
[Carlos] Let's see here, what're we gonna do?
That'll work.
Oh, [bleep].
Wes, it's working.
- [Carlos] Wanna push back a little bit? - [Wes] Oh, heck yeah, man.
[Wes] That's what I'm talking about. Yeah!
- Fire it up. - [motor whirring]
[narrator] Carlos can now start dredging
for the gold-rich red hardpack.
Oh, yeah, turn that water up.
[Carlos] She's a-dredging. We're dredging!
This is it. Come on, baby.
This is where we get gold. This is where we get gold.
[laughs]
- [Kayla] I'm just topping them off. - [Scott] Okay.
[Kayla] Today, Justin and Scott are gonna be in the water.
We're trying to get a quick start,
because right now we have a little bit of clarity in the water,
which makes it easier on the divers.
But since it is sunny, as soon as that sun hits the snow upstream,
the water level rises, it murks out.
[narrator] Unlike at Dustin's site,
the freeze in the mountains is actually helping Kayla's crew.
- [Justin Peterson] The water is clear and low. - [Scott] Yup.
- [Justin] Current don't look too bad right now. - [Scott] No, it don't.
My goal today is to punch down and try to get down to eight feet.
Keep following this bedrock wall down,
I gotta believe that Nugget Creek is gonna live up to its name.
And we need all hands on deck. It's too late in the season
and we're all way too tired and broken and beaten down.
I'm really hoping that this spot pays off as well as we think it will.
Yeah, I know it's slightly annoying to have the tape on there,
but it's even more annoying to have frozen hands.
[Justin] Yeah, I know.
- [Kayla] Scott. - [Scott] Yup.
[Kayla] You're gonna be on the small dredge side.
Justin, you're gonna be on the outer dredge today.
[Justin] No problem.
Got the hole basically to around five feet in depth.
If we keep following this bedrock wall on this side,
it keeps sloping down.
We'll find where it starts leveling out
and we can find the bottom of the creek and hit actual bedrock.
I'm really hoping that within the next week we can see some gold.
[narrator] After three months finding only traces of gold,
Kayla is modifying her plan.
On the nearest side of the creek,
they've identified a sloping wall of bedrock.
Kayla will chase it down to the deepest point
in the center of the creek
where she believes, below the layer of red hardpack
they will find a treasure trove of gold.
- [Paul Richardson] How's that? - [Scott on radio] Little more on the bottom down here.
[Kayla] So, we need to just work together
and get it done.
We really need to see gold soon
because we're running out of time.
And if we don't get any gold, then we wasted an entire season.
That feel good?
[Paul] Can you hear me, Scott?
- [Scott] Yeah, I can hear you. - That's good. Copy that.
[Paul] I can hear you.
Good? All right, I think you're good to go.
[Scott] Sweet.
Let's find some gold.
- [Justin] That feels good. - [Paul] All right. You ready?
[Paul] It's definitely nice having two divers in the water
completely suited up again.
Right now, we are in a desperate fight
to get to the bottom, see if we can find some gold.
before weather runs us out.
Everything we've heard about this area,
we need to get to that rusty red layer, that's where the gold is.
[Scott] All right.
- [Scott] Can I get a choker? - [Justin] Oh, yeah.
[Scott] Thank you.
[Kayla] Is that rock ready to go?
[Justin] What?
[Kayla] Is that rock ready to go?
- [Kayla] Justin. - [Scott] Justin.
[Scott] That rock good to go?
[Justin] Yeah, yeah. It's good to go.
[Scott] Gotta say something, dude.
[Paul] If you need something, Justin, you gotta ask for it.
Nobody can read your mind.
[Kayla] Hey, Justin.
I have to have you communicate.
[Justin speaking]
[Kayla] It's just a yes or a no.
- [Kayla] Yes, communicate, please communicate. - [Justin] Yeah.
[Justin] I will.
[Kayla] This year is definitely trying my patience.
Every day we've had issues,
whether it be the winches, um,
motor on the dredge not wanting to start,
hot water overheating.
We've always had something going wrong.
And it's definitely a frustrating place.
[Justin] That rock you're standing on needs to go.
[Scott] Yeah, 'cause I'm right up against it now.
It's uppercutting into the current.
[narrator] While Scott dredges for depth,
Justin works above him, widening the dive hole
and removing rocks.
[Justin] All right, what do you got, Scott?
[Scott] What? That you?
[Justin] Yeah, that's my head.
Yeah.[laughs]
All right, I gotta go around that way.
- [Scott] Oh,[bleep]! No! - [Kayla] No, Scott!
[Justin] All right, what do you got, Scott?
[Scott] What?
[narrator] In an effort to salvage their season...
[Scott] That suction feels really good.
[narrator] ...Scott and Justin are working close quarters
as they push towards a bedrock payday.
- [Scott] That you? - [Justin] Yeah, that's my head.
[Scott] Yeah.[laughs]
I gotta go around that way--[yelps]
- [Justin] No! - [Kayla] Scott!
- [Kayla] What'd you do? - [Scott groans]
[Scott] [bleep].
Ugh.
[Kayla] You okay? What's wrong?
[Scott] Pulled a[bleep].
Argh.
[Scott] [bleep], Justin, I told him earlier to [bleep] move a rock.
Like, yeah, I told him, I thought that it could, so I went to move.
It came down and there was another rock underneath me.
- [Kayla] Ouch. - [bleep] me.
- [Scott] It's right on the ankle bone, like right... - [Kayla] Right here?
[Scott] Right there is where it hurts the most.
It might just be, like, an impact hurt,
and maybe it'll wear off in about ten minutes.
- Wanna give it a rest for a little while? - Yeah.
[Kayla] See how you feel.
If it's hurting too bad, one of us will get in for you.
Scott hurt his ankle.
Um, it sounds like had a big rock that he had Justin roll out of the way.
Justin told him that he got it up and out,
but, really, it sounds like he just, like,
stacked it on the perimeter of the hole.
So, there's a lack of communication, and...
...it's starting to cause issues.
[Scott] I don't know what to do with this.
You've been on top of me almost this entire [bleep] dive.
Hey, Justin.
Justin!
Work farther that way
so that he has room on this side.
- [Kayla] How's your ankle? - It hurts.
I don't know, I'll tell you at the end of the day.
[Kayla] If you need to switch out, just let me know.
You don't communicate, especially when there's
another diver in the water with you,
you're putting the other person in danger.
- But, like, right now, he doesn't talk. - Exactly.
[Paul] We don't even know, I don't even know if he's in the water.
[Kayla] I don't know what the [bleep] to do with him.
It's to the point where he's becoming a threat
to our equipment and our people.
- [Carlos] It's quite deep. - [Dustin] Let's go deep.
[Dustin] We got a dive, ain't we?
We've got a dive, dude.
[narrator] In an hour, Dustin's crew has cleared
over three feet of gravel
in their hunt for the red hardpack.
[Carlos] Gotta blow these straight out of the way.
- [Dustin] This one, this one, and that one? - [Carlos] Yep.
- [Dustin laughs] - We gotta pop 'em, dude.
- You comfortable doing this? - [Carlos] I'm good.
James and I are gonna start drilling and blasting.
Well, we got the dredge going,
and the hole's getting deeper and deeper.
And there's a few big rocks in the way.
So James and I are gonna get after him
and make little rocks out of big rocks.
[pops] Manageable sizes.
[laughs]
I'd say go three at least.
[Carlos grunts]
Sorry.
Blow it up!
[Dustin] Three, two, one!
Whoa.
- [Dustin] Let's do that again. - [man] Yeah!
[Dustin] Goodness.
- [whirring] - [Dustin] It's starting to move.
[Dustin] I'm just saying, like, the water is coming up pretty good.
We were worried about not having water this morning.
- [Carlos] I know. - [Dustin] That's not a problem anymore, Carlos.
[Carlos laughs] Obviously not.
So the water has picked up since we have got here this morning.
It might be, uh, through the full day of sunshine,
which we rarely get.
Snow is melting and it's coming down hard.
- [Dustin] Man, that's a lot of white water, man. - [Carlos] Yeah, it is.
[Dustin] It floods when it rains,
and it floods more when it's sunny.
That's the [bleep].
[Carlos] Oh, [bleep].
What? Whoa! [bleep]!
That's a lot of water you got coming down, man.
That's a lot of dirty water.
Think we got a flash flood coming.
[narrator] In just seconds,
millions of gallons of raging water
now surges through Nugget Creek,
threatening to erase all their progress once again.
[Dustin] Grab my drill, come on out and get out of here.
Water's coming up real quick.
Come on out. Oh, [bleep].
I'm mostly worried about trees coming through right now. [bleep].
Whoa!
Hurry up, hustle it up, let's get it back. Let's get the nozzle up.
What is with this place, man?
- [Dustin] That's some crazy [bleep]. - [Carlos] Yeah, it is.
You're not gonna have a hole again in a minute.
Where did this come from, man?
[Carlos] Heat. The heat.
Snow bridge.
[Dustin] Snow bridge, you're right.
[narrator] Even late in the season,
snow bridges still cover over a mile of the upper creek.
[Dustin] Well, the snow bridges collapsed.
And obviously, it's warming up today for them to keep collapsing.
There's just so much material on top of them,
it just hits the damn water so hard,
and all this little bitty fine kitty litter, the stuff here,
just fills in everywhere.
[Carlos] Son of a gun.
It's that quick. Take your work.
Take your work that fast in an instant.
[Carlos] We can't catch a frickin' break.
[Dustin] Might be a good time to go up there and check out their place.
[Carlos] I don't know. I hope they got out.
[Dustin] We should go up there and check it out.
How's it going over here?
[Kayla] Oh, it's getting dark.
[Paul] It's getting real dark.
[Scott] There's a lot of organic coming down.
- [Wes shouting] Ice! - [Paul] What the hell?
[Wes] That snow bridge must've just collapsed.
Usually it doesn't stay brown that long.
[Paul] Yeah.
[Wes] So, our water picked up almost instantly.
I mean, it is starting to wash this stuff down, like,
like something broke loose up here.
We figured a snow bridge or something broke loose up here,
so we just, like, we got out for a minute
'cause it's starting to take our dredge hose
and filled up our hole in, like, three minutes, and...
[Dustin] Three minutes, filled up a three-foot hole.
Holy [bleep].
- Right up to the top, man. - [Paul] Yeah.
It was wild.
[Kayla] I think we're gonna call it.
Hey, Scott.
[Scott] Yeah?
What do you think your depth is right there?
[Scott] So I'm right about there. So I'm 6'2"...
- [Kayla] So, about six feet. - [Scott] ...about six foot.
[Scott] Probably about three feet into the hole.
[Kayla] Are you at a good spot that you could stop?
We're gonna call it.
[Scott] I'm gonna need about ten minutes, yeah.
[narrator] It's another tough blow to a battered crew.
And morale is at an all-time low.
Did y'all just stay against this wall the whole way?
[Paul] No, well, Scott's right here,
Justin's out towards the basket,
or he's supposed to be.
[Wes] He's supposed to be?
[chuckling] Is anything going on with the dredge?
[Paul] I have no clue.
I just know he doesn't communicate at all.
Not a word.
[Kayla] Yeah.
[Wes] That makes it kinda tough.
What I'm beginning to wonder with him,
if he doesn't have a hearing problem...
[Dustin] He does have a hearing problem.
[Paul] Really?
[Kayla] Kinda something you should tell people.
Yeah, that's pretty important.
[Kayla] He's the worst at communication.
Whether you can hear or not,
- you can still speak. - Yeah.
[Kayla] I have to talk to him.
[Paul] All right, kids, see you at camp.
[Scott] I'm smoked. I'm done.
Justin, come out.
[Justin] Okay.
We gotta communicate a lot better underwater, dude.
[Justin] I can't hear anything down there.
When you have two people in water that you can't see in,
whether you can hear us or not, you have to talk.
Have to, there's no excuse.
Like, when I got out of the water, free flow,
I could hear, quietly, everyone.
So I had to come up. If I was down below,
and the air was going, I could barely, like,
...unless someone really yelled.
[Paul] I've got all, all the volumes are maxed out,
diver to tender's maxed out...
tender to diver's maxed out,
diver to diver is maxed out.
[Kayla] Do you have a hearing issue? Can you not hear?
I mean, I do have slight hearing loss.
We can still talk. We're not trying to pick on you,
but it's something, it has to improve.
Or we can't put you in the water because
it's becoming a hazard to people.
[Scott] We'll get you up there. Don't worry about it, buddy.
I'll get you there.
We.
- [Scott] Yeah, we. We will get you there. Sorry. - It's not just you.
I've definitely lost a little bit of hearing.
I've worked at industry situations a long time,
and as diligent as you are about earplugs and everything,
you're gonna have some effects from that over the years.
But I try not to let it ever get in the way.
He needs to communicate more.
He needs to talk. We need to know what's going on.
And if he's not going to talk,
then I'm not going to put him back in the water.
Getting some go juice for the dredges,
generators.
We need to get a full dive day.
It's starting to get termination dust on top of these peaks.
And when that happens, we just watch the snow get
further down, come further down,
further down, further down, and when it gets...
...real close, we gotta boot-scoot, man.
Mother Nature wins at the end.
See you up there, man. Good luck, guys.
- [Dustin] I am anxious to see what it's gonna look like. - [Carlos] Ah.
[Dustin] This... well, let's go see how much it filled in.
[Carlos] Yeah.
- [Carlos] Filled in. - [Dustin] No [bleep]!
- What? - Our hole filled in.
Filled in.
[narrator] The surge from the snow bridge collapse
has dumped three feet of material into their dive hole.
[James] All the way up.
[narrator] Their search for the gold rich red hard pack
is back to square one.
That's kitty litter, bro. We can just such that out, like no problem.
The big boulders, it's when they fell in with the big boulders,
that's the problem.
Kitty litter, it's just a thorn in our side.
We can take it out just as quick.
It's just annoying.
[James] We've got the hose in.
[Carlos] Yeah, fire it up.
[engine starts]
- [James] There you go. - [Carlos] Whoo!
Yeah!
Yeah, look how deep that is. Ooh!
That is deep.
[James] Pretty incredible.
Let's get a diver int the water, man.
I'm gonna go suit up. Why not?
[narrator] It's a race to reach the red hard pack
before Mother Nature lands her next blow.
Feeling pretty confident about this dive.
We got good vis and it's time to get to work.
We need to get gold, we're desperate.
[Dustin] We just need to dive down.
We need to find that red layer down there.
If no one's got to it we're gonna get a ton of gold out of here.
[Carlos] Speak, James.
[James] Hello?
[Dustin] I got you.
Air check.
Good.
I'm excited that you're diving.
I'm more excited that I think you're gonna get gold.
[James laughs]
- Look, all right, James, you're good to go. - [James] All right.
[Dustin] Diver in the water.
- Diver in the water. - [Dustin on radio] Diver in the water.
Finally, right?
[James on radio] I like the fact I can see.
Some rocks, so I need to start out with in the back.
Thank you, Carlos.
Hot water's good.
Finally digging. All right.
I wouldn't be surprised if we see gold today, guys.
[grunts]
[Dustin on radio] I hope you're run, but don't blow it, man.
[Kayla]...Care, when are you going?
[bleep] you're not the [bleep] boss.
[narrator] After three long months of hard labor,
bad weather, injuries, and endless setbacks,
Kayla's crew still haven't found a single ounce of gold.
[Scott] [bleep] be a little crybaby about [bleep] that.
What the [bleep] is wrong with you?
[narrator] Crew morale is nearing rock bottom,
and tempers are on a hair trigger.
[Scott] Don't use my [bleep] batteries then, how's that?
I have my own [bleep] batteries.
Cool, use your own [bleep] batteries.
How about you [bleep] go back to camp?
[Scott] All right.
[Kayla] I am tired of your [bleep] attitude.
Cool.
I tried to make things work.
- No, you [bleep]-- - I tried to make things work
as efficiently as [bleep] possible.
[Kayla] You make it worse.
The [bleep] I do.
[Kayla] You do.
With your [bleep] attitude, you been bringing all these along to work,
you're making it [bleep] worse.
Well, with your attitude that you're bringing,
you been making the season worse, so...
I guess that's par for the course, isn't it?
Get the [bleep] out of my face, Scott.
Get the [bleep] out of my face.
I'm done with you.
Should've fired you last year
when you [bleep] told [bleep] last year [bleep].
Should've let Dustin fire you.
I put my heart and soul into this.
That's all there is to it.
Worked my ass off.
I don't know. Don't know.
I don't know what's going on.
I [bleep] worked my [bleep] into the dirt for her.
Oh, what the hell?
What's going on?
- She fired me. - She said that?
- Yep. - [Carlos] You'll be all right, bro.
You gotta be the bigger man on this one.
[Dustin] Let's talk.
- [Scott] I'm out of here. - [Carlos] That's the temper talking, amigo.
It's a temper talk.
At the end of the season, we hate each other.
There's no gold to bring us together.
Everything's a little bit unstable, man.
This is the time where you see what you're made of.
[Wes] This is what separates the man from the boys right here.
[Scott] What the [bleep] is happening?
I just busted my ass.
And then goes off about my attitude.
Yeah, I've had a little bit of an [bleep] attitude.
I'm missing a lot [bleep] back home with my kids
and it's starting to weigh on me.
A lot firsts with my daughter.
[sighs] First crawling, first words,
I'm about to miss her first steps
and those are the things you can't get back.
So it's been weighing on me.
It hurts.
You know, coming home with a pocket full of gold,
you've got something in your hand that you can show the kids.
Say, "Hey, this is what Dad was gone for.
This is gonna provide a better life for us.
This, you know, Dad's sacrifice, being gone from you and missing things,
it was worthwhile because, hey, you're gonna have a better life because of it."
But I can't have that.
I don't have that.
I don't have that gold in my hand.
[Kayla] Scott is a good worker.
But don't disrespect me like that.
- [Paul] No? - I'm gonna tell you to [bleep] leave.
Got so mad I don't even want to get in the [bleep] water now.
[Dustin] Scott thinks he's fired.
- Is that right? - [Kayla] He's not [bleep] fired.
I told Scott to go back to camp for a little while
because he's throwing temper tantrums all the time.
- I'm tired of it. - Okay.
- I was just curious. - I get the feeling that he's trying to make us look bad.
Because he wants to run the [bleep] crew.
[Dustin] I understand what you're saying.
[Kayla] He wants to be in charge and he's pissed off that he's not in charge.
And him's trying to step on my toes,
and that macho man, immature [bleep] can go somewhere else.
I don't have the time for that.
We're all here trying to achieve the same goal.
I hear you. All right, let me go talk to him.
[Paul] All right.
Scott has brought up multiple times, you know,
he's got young children at home.
I understand it's hard to be away,
but we are all away from the things that we love and the people that we love
to be here.
He is not the only one making a sacrifice.
He pulled [bleep] like this last year
and I can't take it anymore.
Right now we don't have time to waste.
So if somebody doesn't want to work
or if somebody has an attitude,
we're not gonna let that stop us.
I'm not here to scream.
I'm here to work.
[narrator] A man down, Kayla can't risk Justin,
their most inexperienced crew member
tending for both her and Paul,
[Kayla] Hey, Justin?
how do you feel about getting in the water?
I don't quite think I'm confident enough
to leave you up here by yourself and tend two people.
I know I can handle it.
If you want to get in the water so we can still get out double dive in today
that would be a huge help.
- Okay. - [Kayla] Are you up for that?
- Okay. - Yeah.
- [Kayla] Want to start getting suited up? - All right.
I'll keep working on where I know I was.
- [Kayla] Okay. - So that works out great.
I need you to make sure that you focus clearly on communication.
- Yeah, I've been practicing with this. - [Kayla] 100%.
- So. - It'll seem annoying,
it'll seem weird, it'll seem awkward.
You gotta get over that.
I need you, especially with him.
- [Justin] Yep. - So talk to him.
Okay.
We're not going to hit that rock this year if we don't focus.
- Yes. I'll do whatever it takes. - So.
[narrator] For Kayla to continue to safely run to two-dredge operation,
Justin must prove that he can change his ways.
[Justin] The water's still clear.
We want to, like what do we need to do here to...
Like what am I trying to say here?
[Kayla] We need to focus on widening the hole
so that way, we can keep going down and gain more depth as well
and not tunnel straight down.
I'm trying to... I'm working on it a lot.
[Paul] You can ask me all kinds of questions all day long.
- [Kayla] Nobody's gonna get mad about questions. - [Paul] No.
But when you don't do something and you don't tell us that you don't know
and that's why you're not doing it, that's gonna piss me off.
When we're standing here
and it' quiet and I don't have the rushing water, I can hear.
- [Paul] Yeah. - But once it goes in there, it's like...
[muffled speaking] Like...
and then [imitating radio] "Justin," I know what that means.
Why don't we plug in his mask right now?
If we can hear on it, then we know there's not an issue.
You talk into this.
- Talk loud. - [Justin] I'm talking.
- Loud. - I'm talking fairly damn loud here.
- Not Scott level, but loud. - [Kayla] Yell!
- [loudly] Okay! - Okay, I can hear you.
[Kayla] Justin, can you hear me?
[Justin on radio] You're clear.
Close your ambient and check your air for me.
- Good? - [Justin] Yep.
[Justin on radio] I think I'm on the edge of the hole, I think.
[Kayla on radio] All right, you guys have a good dive.
We really need Justin to cooperate from here on out
because we don't have that much time left.
Um...
If we don't hit bedrock
that's a whole season that we pretty much wasted.
So we really need to put everything in it.
We need to move a lot of material.
We need to get to bedrock so that we can hopefully see some gold.
[Justin grunts]
Here's where I was.
[Paul on radio] Yeah, this would be the front edge of our...
The hole we got going.
Please stay with me right now.
Got some big rocks that came down on the bottom.
[Justin on radio] Stay over here and avoid
knocking anything in your direction.
Despite people issues,
we still managed to get two divers in the water today.
We're still gonna get a lot done.
This morning started off really rocky,
but we're still gonna make the best of it.
- [Dustin] Hey, man. - [Scott] What's going on?
[Dustin] So I went over and talked to them.
Somehow you got irate is what I heard.
As I was packing my stuff up and getting out of my waders,
she's like, "You should've been [bleep] fired for that last year."
[Dustin] Yeah, but that doesn't mean you're fired, so...
Let's just calm yourself,
and we'll see where this goes, I don't know what to tell you.
I'd say play it cool and try to figure out
how to get along with your crew,
and if you can't, then you need to go home.
There's only two ways.
[Paul on radio] Now we got progress.
I'm liking this.
[narrator] On Nugget Creek,
Justin and Paul are two hours into a double dive
chasing a sloping bedrock wall
in pursuit of a gold-rich red layer.
[Justin on radio] Right here, I thought of moving a big one out.
[indistinct]
[narrator] Men down, the crew has to pull together
or face going home empty-handed.
[Justin on radio] I hit a rock. I'm dropping one.
[Paul on radio] Okay, go for it.
I'm way over here away from you, so.
[Justin on radio] Copy that. I'm against the wall.
What if you hear and it's right this moment?
[Paul on radio] Thank you.
[Justin on radio] Still rolling.
[Paul on radio] Copy that.
Justin seems to be doing a lot better with communication,
and I think the talk with him today really got to him,
so it's nice to have that breakthrough.
And he's doing so much better which I love seeing.
Yesterday, I think we had the hole about six feet.
We've been getting a lot of material moved, a lot of rocks moved,
so I'm really happy to see that.
[narrator] As Paul dredges,
Justin continues moving rocks and boulders out of the dive hole.
[Justin on radio] All right.
Awesome.
Okay.
We got a nice ridge wall.
[Paul on radio] Getting chilly in[bleep] hole.
[bleep] What the[bleep] is going on?
[Kayla] What's going on, Paul?
[Paul on radio] I'm not sure I'm getting any water.
- I don't think the valve was going the entire... - [Kayla] It's not working?
[bleep] stuck again.
What the [bleep]?
And it gets stuck shut and then it gets stuck open. [bleep.]
[Justin on radio] Can I help him?
- I don't know. - [Paul on radio] I might go ahead and call it.
Think I'm done for the day.
[narrator] Paul's hot water supply failing,
he's forced to cut short his dive.
[Paul on radio] Damnit.
[narrator] The crew's success now rests entirely on Justin.
[Justin on radio] All right, I'm gonna get downstream a little.
I got more rocks to lift, come on.
- [Justin laughs] - [Paul] He's good for right now.
Definitely been some weird gremlins today.
[Kayla] [bleep] yeah, [bleep].
[Paul] I did clear off some of the backslide.
I was hoping to get more of that done today,
but it just wasn't in the cards for today.
[Kayla] On a positive note,
- Justin's been going pretty good today. - He has, hasn't he?
I mean, Justin, he's definitely stepped it up today
as far as his communications go.
- [Kayla] It's a big improvement from yesterday. - [Paul] Yeah.
[Paul] Yeah.
- [Justin on radio] That's ready to go. - [Paul] Okay.
[Justin on radio] After that, I got one to choke.
[Paul on radio] Okay, choker's over here, I'll get it to you.
[Justin on radio] Thank you.
All right.
Take it away.
[Paul] Nice rocks.
[Justin on radio] Got it.
Holy moly, you guys.
We're making a hole.
[narrator] After five hours in the water...
[Justin on radio] Yeah, I hit seven foot.
[narrator] Justin has taken them a foot closer to pay dirt,
salvaging their week from ruin.
[Paul] He's definitely kicking ass, man.
[Kayla on radio] Hey, Justin, you hear me?
[Justin on radio] I can hear you.
[Kayla] I think we're gonna call it for the day if you want to come up.
[Justin] Okay.
[Kayla] Go ahead.
- Did a good job today. - Thank you.
- [Justin] I talk more? - [Kayla] Yes.
You did way better. Thank you.
I'm trying to learn, sorry I was so slow.
[Kayla] That was a huge improvement.
So thank you.
Good job.
I wasn't planning on diving today,
my rotation was yesterday,
but situation's occurred
and it ended up being more effective for Kayla
to attend for both Paul and I.
But what you did today
is what I've been trying to get you to do the whole time.
[Justin] Sorry it took so long.
So if we could just stay on that track,
it'd be perfect.
Nothing yet?
- Nothing. - [Kayla] Okay.
[Justin] I got a lot moved today, that felt good.
Despite having a really bad start to the day,
um, and being down on a crew member,
we still managed to get a good amount of material moved.
To see Justin step up
and actually improve like that,
that much improvement in one day was a huge relief.
So we're not gonna let people issue stop us.
We aren't quitters. We're not gonna give up.
Hopefully we see some really good gold
for all the effort we're putting in.
[James on radio] It's looking good.
[narrator] Down at Dustin's site...
[James on radio] Starting to look really good, my friend.
[narrator] ...James is three hours into his first dive
in the looming shadow of a 50-ton boulder.
[James on radio] I've gotta come back over and clean this.
[narrator] Somewhere below him is the promised red hard pack,
and a monster payday.
[James on radio] Looks like beautiful weather.
[Dustin] I'm pretty sure you're the warmest.
[James on radio] Oh, I'm overheating. I'm sweating in my mask.
[Dustin] Yeah, I don't have that problem right now.
[Carlos] Why can't dredging ever be easy?
Why can't we just dredge in The Bahamas?
Or Hawaii?
Or...
Somewhere nice and warm, you know?
Tell us what you're down there doing, man.
- How's it looking? - [James grunts]
[James on radio] It's just, uh...
This is really hard to dig.
Like really hard to dig.
[Carlos on radio] Seeing any color, man?
[James on radio] Nah, I'm just dredging like crazy.
Already trying as hard as I can
to get us down to bedrock.
[Carlos on radio] All right, take your time, man.
I mean, you know, pace yourself, brother.
Remember it's a marathon, not a sprint.
[James on radio] Running into orange rocks.
[Dustin on radio] Do you think you made it down to the rust layer finally?
[James on radio] I think so.
[Dustin on radio] Yep, dredge water starting to turn orange.
[James grunts]
[Carlos] Oh, yeah! Whoo-hoo!
[Dustin] Look how orange that stuff is.
- [Carlos] I know, dude. It's like one of those riddles. - [Dustin] Look at it.
When the water bleeds, you're so close to gold.
[others laugh]
[narrator] It's taken three months
of blood, sweat, and tears,
but James has finally gotten the crew down to the red layer
that legend says is rich in gold.
[James on radio] All right, frickin' tired.
See what we got.
All right, I'm done.
[Dustin] Good dive.
Thank you.
Look like you made some real progress though.
[Carlos] Good job, James.
- [James] Hey, man. - [Carlos] I'm really, really excited, man,
to see what's in the box.
[James] How's it look?
Dirts, probably some. Maybe some fine but it could be covered up too.
[Dustin] Yeah.
I mean, we're starting to get a little bit of orange come over.
Just sporadically.
We gotta be getting close to it.
[bleep] Though for sure we was gonna get some color today.
We had a good dive.
I'm not gonna lie, I expected a lot of gold.
The way he was digging, where he was digging...
Got it in my had that...
Here we have it.
We'll see.
Just keep diving, see what happens.
[Scott] Been up since 3 o'clock this morning.
I don't want to cause issues
with the rest of the crew and everything.
- [Dustin] Okay. - Just...
I think it's time for me to go.
[Dustin] Well, I understand.
I think you're making a bad choice.
Some things in life you regret more than others.
Maybe not this week,
maybe not next week.
[Scott] It's the hardest decision I've ever had to make.
If you don't mind, I'll tell everybody.
So, y'all, it's time for me to go.
Time for me to go home.
Right, wrong, or indifferent.
I made a decision.
With all due respect, I think you're gonna hate yourself, man, in another month.
Please, man, you jumped the gun on that one.
[James] Yeah, Scott, don't do that, dude.
It's time for me to call it.
Wish you all the absolute best.
Yeah, I'm sorry, man.
A pleasure working with you.
Bring it in.
Best wishes.
Stick around, dude.
All right, man.
- Thanks for everything, brother. - Yeah.
[exhales]
- I'll see you tomorrow. - [Scott speaks indistinctly]
Good luck. Good luck, brother.
You've come a long way, man.
It's time for me to go.
- Stay safe. - I wish you good luck.
[Scott crying]
[Dustin] We all make our own choices to be here,
- So that's very true. - Yep.
It's not easy for any of us to be here.
- So you have to make your choice and that's his. - [James] Yeah.
This is hard damn work.
You gotta be away from your people.
We all know it.
It kills me because I love it up here so much.
I love this group of guys like family.
But I got a family back home that I need to go back to.
It's time.
It's just time.
[sighs]
Scott played a huge role
in overcoming a lot of the challenges that we faced this year,
and I hate to see him leave this close to the end,
and him not to get to finish it out with us,
but if his heart isn't in this, that's his choice.
We're not gonna let it stop us, we're still gonna push forward.
We're gonna do what we have to do to get a lot of gold.
[narrator] On the nextGold Rush: White Water...
Find us some gold.
Really need it.
Right now.
Hell yeah!
Every time we make a little bit of progress, it gets wiped away.
[bleep]
- [Kayla] Justin. - Just ripped in half.
[man on radio] We should just abandon this.
We gotta push it to the limits now.
- [Dustin] I'm seeing gold, guys. - [Paul] [bleep] yeah!
- [whoops] - Oh, [bleep] yeah!
I can see it!
- We got gold! - [all cheer]
Yeah [bleep] right, man!