[James Hamm] Four days into the season, we're running out of time.
We're onto the gold, couldn't be happier right now.
It's up in that cave area.
That's where all the big gold's at.
But it's very, very dangerous.
I need to stay away from that big-ass boulder there.
It's halfway undermined,
and if I start getting greedy and poking around over there,
that thing comes crashing down, smash me, uh...
That's not the way I wanna go out.
I don't wanna... I don't wanna die in Nugget Creek.
Just don't go too [bleep] far, man.
[Carlos Minor] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[Dustin Hurt] If this comes down, it's gonna fall right in here.
Boom!
Not trying to get inside your head,
I'm just giving you, trying to keep you prepared.
You get it? I say move, you move.
You hear me? If somebody's pulling you,
you move without any hesitation at all.
At all.
- [Dustin] Here she comes. Check. - [James] Yep.
[Dustin] Check gear.
[James on radio] All right.
- [Dustin] Ready to go? - [James] All right.
[James] Let's go find some gold.
[dramatic music playing]
[Fred Hurt] They're dredging right into that area,
where a 100-ton rock can just flip off on top of us.
You gotta climb in the mouth of a dragon to get gold.
- [rumbling] - [Paul Richardson] The [bleep] was that?
We don't know if it's gonna hit flood stage,
but it's very possible that it could.
[Fred laughing] Whoo!
- Doing things an old man don't do. - [laughs]
- [Dustin] Can't believe how brave you are, man. - [laughs]
[Dustin] On the point of death like that.
Think I see a piece already. There's chunkies in there.
[Carlos cheering] There it is!
[laughs]
We're getting down to the bottom of this thing.
It's finally our time.
[Carlos] Ooh, yeah!
Dan's getting some [bleep] gold right there.
Every time that box turn dirty, cha-ching! Gold.
[narrator] Deep in the southeast Alaskan wilderness,
Dustin Hurt and his crew are on the gold.
But time is not on their side.
[Dustin] The jackets are getting bigger out here.
This snow is creeping down the mountain
right now as we speak.
But, we're finding gold.
The bottom of this,
I have no doubt that it's gonna be
absolutely amazing.
[James] Those some pretty rusted rocks.
Everything that we've heard when you get into this red hardpack,
you start getting gold when you get under it on the bedrock
in the deep areas where there's anomalies and stuff,
you get large nuggets.
That's just the money pot, right here.
But what's holding us back?
Big-ass boulder.
You gotta climb
in the mouth of a dragon to get gold.
We're getting into a scary area.
They were warned, though.
[narrator] Five weeks ago, a major storm ripped through Nugget Creek,
threatening to end Dustin's season.
This place is destroyed.
Everything we have is underwater right now.
[narrator] But in a stroke of luck...
[James] Hey, Dustin, come look at this.
[narrator] ...the storm surge uncovered an anomaly...
- [Carlos] Has anybody been underneath that rock? - [Dustin] I doubt it.
There's gonna be some huge risk involved.
[narrator] ...that could lead to a massive deposit of gold.
- [Dustin] I'm seeing gold, guys! - [Carlos] Yeah!
- [Dustin] Whoo-hoo! - [Carlos] Oh, my [bleep]!
[bleep] right, hell yeah!
[narrator] But their good fortune comes with a 50-ton risk.
If you look at it, it's completely undermined.
There's nothing left to it, so.
James, you gotta try to stay back here.
I don't think it's gonna fall on him back there.
I don't think, anyway.
[James] The hardpack is like cement.
We're gonna need a pressure washer,
something with really good pressure.
[Wes Richardson] Got you, got you.
Um, just trying to rig up a spray hose
with just this water jet that's coming off the pump.
We don't have a high-pressure sprayer here right now,
but we do have this and it'll jet.
I think it'll work.
It takes this gravel out like nothing.
[James] Thank you.
[narrator] Using the pump from the dredge,
Wes has created a high-pressure gold blaster.
James will attempt to punch through the hardpack
to get to the gold layer.
But if he goes too far,
he will bring 50 tons of boulder
down on top of him.
[James laughs]
This is awesome.
[Dustin] Just gonna be tearing it up today.
He'll be digging a bunch.
He's looking for nuggets right now. I know what he's doing.
If there's any gold in there, he's gonna pull it all out, I promise.
[Wes] Ooh!
[Carlos] Holy [bleep], they're wet!
That [bleep] rock!
- [Wes] I knew it was haunted. - [Dustin laughing]
[Dustin] That boulder moved.
It just did that. See it up there?
[Carlos] Holy [bleep], dude.
Holy [bleep]!
[narrator] Blasting his way towards the gold layer,
James has undermined the massive boulder,
causing it to shift.
[Dustin] Hey, watch yourself. Get the [bleep] out of the hole.
I thought it was, I thought the rock was gonna come down.
If that rock comes down, we're dead.
[James] Holy crap, dude.
[Dustin] We're so far underneath that rock that
if something happens, it slips,
I'll never forgive myself for letting anybody get hurt.
So we're gonna have to figure this out.
[narrator] Until Dustin and his crew
secure the 50-ton mammoth,
all dredging is off.
Just 600 feet up creek...
[Kayla Johanson] Look how nice that water is.
[Paul] I know.
[narrator] ...Kayla and her crew have managed to tame
the raging whitewater.
But with winter just weeks away,
they are desperate to get their hands on Nugget Creek's legendary gold.
[Kayla] On my last dive I found some pretty good pickers,
so hopefully we'll find more gold today.
Should have some good visibility,
the water's really low and it's actually pretty clear.
That diversion wall, working really well.
[narrator] Two weeks ago...
[Kayla] I am tired of your [bleep] attitude.
How about you [bleep] go back to camp?
[Scott Allen yelling] What the hell?
[narrator] Scott Allen quit with less than a month left.
But the three-man crew pushed on
and built a diversion wall to protect them
from the raging torrent...
What that's gonna do is help it be a lot easier for the divers, so they're not
fighting that current the whole time.
[narrator] ...which led to the discovery of a gold-rich red layer.
We got gold. Finally!
The water current is nice and low
after we did that diversion wall, so...
...Justin's gonna have a really good dive today.
[Justin Peterson] Feeling really good about today's dive.
This is the first dive I'll get to do
with the diversion wall and the calm water.
I think I'll be able to move a lot of material today.
All it is, is put in the time.
[Paul] You about ready?
All right, how's that feel?
[Justin] Feels good.
[Paul] Think you're good to go.
Good luck. Find some gold.
[Kayla on radio] No gold, no dinner.
[Justin] Okay-doke.
- [Justin] Good thing I have reserves attached. - [Paul laughs]
[Justin] Wow.
This hole is awesome, guys, you've done amazing.
I mean, it's great.
May I please have that yellow pry bar?
[narrator] Justin is seven feet down
powering through a gold-rich red layer.
Without a gold blaster,
he'll have to use brute force
to break his way through to bedrock gold.
[Justin] Oh, thank you.
[Paul] All right. Ready for this beast?
This late in the season, we gotta do everything we can
to get to bedrock.
[Justin] Bingo. We can get to dredging.
[gravel crackling]
[Paul] He's into something good right now. I mean, look at that.
Right now, he's probably got the best visibility we've ever had.
Now, if he can stay focused and just keep moving materials,
we'll get a lot of stuff done.
I don't know how much time we have left.
It would be nice to know that we got enough bedrock cleared off
that, uh, we'll have a decent season.
[loud rumbling]
[Paul] The [bleep] was that?
Hey, did you just hear that rumble?
That almost sounded like a jet, but it wasn't a jet.
It was a real quick rumble.
Almost like thunder.
Something let loose upstream.
We got some chocolate water coming down.
[narrator] After weeks of the worst rain
Alaska has seen in 30 years,
the 500-foot cliffs are saturated with water
and are collapsing.
[Kayla on radio] Something broke free upstream,
so you're about to have some brown water.
[Justin groaning] Aw.
Man.
That's some brown water. Dang it.
[bleep]. [laughs]
This visibility sucks now.
Had a big one fall in the hole.
Hey, swamp-cud chucker.
All right, let's play Where's Waldo. [sighs]
[bleep]. [laughs]
Ugh. It's proving to be a little troublesome.
Yeah, it's hard when you can't see what you're doing.
[Justin groaning] Yeah.
All right, hopefully it doesn't slip.
It did.
I had it in a good groove.
All right, let's give this another go.
Oh, ugh.
But if I had gotten to it earlier,
I could've actually seen it
and this would've been not so difficult.
[Paul] I give you five minutes underwater and you'll have that rock slinging out.
[Kayla] That's definitely not his strong point.
[Justin groaning] Try this again.
[bleep] dang it.
[Kayla] We do not have time for this.
He needs to pick up the pace just a little bit.
Winter's definitely moving in on us,
we've already seen termination dust on the peaks.
There's snow up high, it's only a matter of time
before it hits us down here at the lower levels.
So we are definitely running out of time.
[Dustin] Right now it looks like a rat trap, doesn't it?
So, my idea is to go up with two cables,
goes up the two pipes.
It might be enough to slow her down enough to not crush us.
We got three options, one of them is to just chance it.
Doesn't seem like the right thing to do.
Second thing is, we can crack that rock,
but it'll set us back another two weeks that we don't have.
Or we could tie it off in a day
work under it, and hope that tie-off works.
So we're gonna tie it off.
It's basically a time crunch right now.
I mean, what's the worst that can happen?
[narrator] Dustin's quick fix to secure the 50-ton boulder?
Drill anchor bolts and use steel-braided cable,
attach to the rock wall and big boulders upstream.
At over 100,000 pounds,
the anchors may not stop the boulders from falling,
but could give the diver enough time to escape.
This is the strongest point right here.
It's gonna go here to right there.
[Wes] If I'm guessing, this boulder's probably been here for
no telling how many thousands of years.
That tells me nobody's been underneath it.
Once we get this big boulder secured,
it's gonna be absolutely chock full of gold.
We're making it happen, so, soon,
really soon, we're gonna start finding some good gold here.
That's tight, man. That's tight as you need to go.
We got a cable that's helping to hold up
the giant boulder that could possibly fall on us,
but we need to do more.
Carlos, can I, uh, get you to tie this off back here over to this wall
and over the top and into the face?
[Carlos] Yup.
[Dustin] Hey, if it looks like it's gonna start moving or something,
[bleep] stop.
[Carlos] Got you, I got you. I hear you.
[Dustin] Be careful you don't hit that thing too much,
'cause, you know, it has moved.
[laughing] I know! I know.
[Dustin] The only thing I believe holding this entire rock up right now
is that jammed piece of granite right there.
You hit that with a hammer, and it might come straight down, right down.
[Carlos] Heavenly Father, please protect us, please keep us safe.
Heavenly Father, please protect us, please keep us safe.
I'm getting every prayer up in there.
[narrator] At Nugget Creek, all diving is off
while Dustin and his crew secure the 50-ton boulder
looming over their dive site.
[Dustin] Crazy how brave you are, man.
- [Dustin] Yeah. - [laughs]
[Dustin] On the point of death like that, like, geez, man.
This should be enough.
You wanna hook it down there and tighten it up top?
[Carlos] Yeah.
[Dustin exclaiming]
Do not want to be standing right here
when this thing starts to move.
Biggest rat trap on Earth.
This is the part where
the Coyote finally gets the Roadrunner.
- [Carlos] All right, ready? - [Dustin] Yeah, go ahead.
[Carlos] I'll take it.
[Dustin] Got it.
Well, I won't say this is safe,
but it is definitely safer than it was a minute ago.
Ah, I can live with that.
[Dustin] You good to go?
[James] I'll get to work.
Oh, yeah.
[Carlos] Look for the dirty box of gold.
Right there, look. There it goes, gold.
Couple of nuggets in there.
[James] I got a lot of basket rocks in here.
[Wes] We're getting further up underneath this big-ass boulder.
I'm predicting pretty soon here in the future,
we're gonna get into some of those large nuggets.
[Carlos] Whoo! Lot of red rocks, dude!
Lot of red rocks.
More red rocks coming out, that means more gold.
[James] Yeah!
[narrator] James puts in another two hours in the kill zone,
and is now running on fumes.
- [Dustin] And he is just cooked out, he is... - [Carlos] Yeah.
- He's so motivated to get gold he's dying, look at him. - [Carlos] Yeah, I know.
[Dustin] Hey, let's pull him up, man.
He's too far.
[Carlos] Hey, dude. You know what, man?
Let's call it a day right now, dude. Let's call it a day.
- Diver up! - Diver up. Let's call it a day.
[Carlos] Let's get all your tools out and all that good stuff.
Good dive, bro, good dive.
- [Dustin] He's exhausted, dude. - [Carlos laughs]
[Carlos] Good dive, James.
All right, go check out that box, man.
[sighs]
Crossing my fingers.
- [all cheering] - [James] Holy [bleep]!
- [Carlos cheering] - [James] [bleeping]
Good job, man!
[James] Holy crap, dude!
- Yeah! - Whoo-hoo!
Every dive, box is full of gold. Every dive.
Cha-ching, bro!
That's a great day. [laughs]
[Carlos] There's a pocket there we haven't gotten yet, dude.
- A pocket. - Oh, man.
Just wait till we get to the bottom and get those big nuggets.
It's only gonna get way better.
[Carlos] This is just the beginning, man.
Three dives in!
Hell yeah, man. Good job.
- You got it, brother! - Yeah!
Once we get all the way up underneath this big-ass boulder,
get to the bedrock, I got a feeling it's gonna be a huge payday.
We've been striking out for years and years.
We're just getting to a place where we're getting gold every day.
It's finally our time.
We're gonna get down to the bottom of this thing.
I hope that there's a huge payoff,
because it's time.
[Kayla on radio] Still working on that boulder?
[Justin] Yeah.
[narrator] At Kayla's dive site,
Justin is four hours into his dive
and still struggling to remove a boulder
standing between him and bedrock.
[Justin] So slick.
It is a race against time, we know we got some weather coming in,
so the more Justin can get cleaned off, the better it will be.
[Justin] All right. Hopefully it doesn't slip.
Perfect.
- [Kayla] That's a big rock. - [Paul] Yeah, it is. [bleep].
[Justin] Now I can follow the bedrock.
Oh, yeah. We're getting it, guys.
[Paul] Now if he can just stay focused and keep moving material,
we'll get a lot of stuff done.
Hopefully he'll get to see some gold laying on the bedrock.
Oh, look at the clouds. The clouds are moving in.
We're not gonna be able to see the top of the hills here in a minute.
- [Paul] Oh, [bleep]. - [Kayla laughs]
[Kayla] Those clouds are dropping.
We're gonna be in the clouds here in a second.
Water was getting deep on the other side.
[Paul] Damn. We started washing all that gravel
- [Kayla] Yeah. - [Paul] That thing won't do it,
it's got a channel over there.
- [Kayla] It's definitely picked up. - [Paul] Yeah, it has.
[Paul] What's scary is if that diversion wall
goes right there, it's gonna wanna fill the hole back in.
With this rain that's coming in, the water's already picked up.
We don't know if it's gonna hit flood stage,
but it's very possible that it could.
Hey, Justin, are you at a good spot that you can stop?
[Justin] Yeah.
- [Justin] But I wasn't going to until you asked. - We're gonna call it.
[Justin] Oh. [inhales]
[Paul] All right.
Let me get back.
[Justin] It's all right.
[Paul] How deep does it go?
[Justin] I would say that I'm about...
...eight foot deep right where the ripples of the water...
- [laughs] - Wow.
- ...come in this way. - Yeah.
You had some really, really dark material
- coming out of that box. - [Justin] Guess so.
[Paul] Sound like you need to go check the box.
[narrator] It's taken Justin six hours,
but he's managed to carve a chunk out of the red rust layer.
[Kayla] I can't see anything.
Hang on. A little piece.
[Paul] Pretty good sized piece.
[Justin] That one right there, too?
- [Kayla] At least it's a start. - [Justin] Yup.
[Kayla] Hopefully it starts getting better. This...
...is fun to see,
but we need a lot more gold this late in the season
and if it doesn't start picking up,
I don't see this creek being worth mining again next year
if we don't get better gold.
- We're gonna find that pocket. - We're gonna find it.
- Takes a little while, but we're gonna find it. - [Paul] That's true.
[Kayla] Hopefully tomorrow we'll get some more.
- Lots more. - [Paul] Lots, lots more.
Lots more.
- [Paul] Uh, go get changed, man. - [Justin] All right.
[Justin] Don't get me wrong, I always love to see gold.
But "nice to see gold" and "needing more gold" are different stories.
I wanna just get more gold.
[exhaling] Whoo.
[Kayla] Today went a lot slower than I would've liked it to go.
Justin had a pretty rough dive.
We don't have very long left in the season,
so we have to hit it hard.
If we don't find something better,
this season's gonna be a wash.
[narrator] Up ahead...
[Fred] Whoo! [laughs]
I'm fresh back here, all full of piss and vinegar.
[Carlos] Hey, Fred, how's things going?
[Fred] Gotta be some gold in there.
[Carlos cheering]
That's gold.
[Dustin] Just beat.
I feel like physical mobility is leaving me right now.
Oh, man, just walking up those stairs just now,
like, what is wrong with me?
[narrator] At Nugget Creek,
after four months of backbreaking work,
Dustin and his crew are running on fumes.
[Dustin] My guys are falling around. [laughs]
We're exhausted.
There's only a certain limit to physical abilities.
We're not rock stars.
We need help, so a friend's coming up to camp.
I gave him a call.
It would be nice to have an extra set of hands up here.
[narrator] In an act of pure desperation,
Dustin has called in the only person with the right experience
to keep his crew alive and finish the job.
So, we got Fred coming in today.
Dustin's gonna pick him up. Us three, we got this thing taken care of.
As long as that big-ass boulder stays where it's supposed to stay,
and I stay where I'm supposed to stay, then we'll be frank about it.
[Wes] So, we keep working closer to this boulder.
We're trying to take precautions,
because that's a death boulder right there.
[Carlos] Let's get some gold. Let's get some red.
Sinking like crazy.
[Fred] I'm fresh back here in southern Alaska,
all full of piss and vinegar.
[narrator] After a two-month absence,
79-year-old mining veteran Fred Hurt
has dropped everything to help his son get to the gold.
I just got into town. Been a while since I've been up here.
I know they've been struggling.
Sounded like Dustin needed a little help up there.
Hey, they've been up here for months and months and months.
Maybe I can just put a fresh eyeball
on the whole situation.
Whether they'll listen or not, hey, that's a different story.
It's been years since I've been down here
to Chilkat Landing.
See what's going on out here.
[motorboat humming]
[Fred] I hear him coming. [laughs]
I don't know if that's Dustin or not.
Ah, you [bleeping]! [bleep] you.
[laughs]
It appears that he is stuck over on a bar over there in the river.
It's an unexpected little event. [chuckles]
90% land all the way out there.
A truck would go right across there.
Hmm.
Should I try that?
I think I'm gonna try to go ahead and run out there with the truck.
Watch me get stuck. [laughs]
I hope not, but whether I can get all the way out there, I don't know.
I'mma try it.
[laughs] You ready for this adventure?
[shouting] Fred, are you crazy or what?
[bleep].
Oh, [bleep]. What happened?
I gotta find a shallow spot to get across this thing.
See if I can get across up there.
You wanna be rough right here.
Rough, right here.
There we go.
Better stop right here.
Kinda look like you got a little problem there.
First time you ever drove that boat?
- [Dustin] Yeah, well... - [Fred laughs]
[Dustin] I hit that edge a little too hard and it spun me around, is all.
- [Fred] How you making out? - Ah, well, been better.
[Dustin] Good to see you, welcome back to Haines.
Let's see what I can do with it.
[Fred] I got over the back.
[Dustin] See what you got, Fred.
One, two, three.
[Fred] Okay, slower, let me get another bite.
[Dustin] One, two, three. [grunts]
[grunts] Oh, yeah, that's better.
[Fred] Let's go!
[grunts] Two, three.
[grunts]
[Fred grunts]
[Dustin] Nice, she's floating now.
Let's see if she's stuck anymore.
You're gonna want ear protection or something. It's gonna be awful.
- And you don't want-- - [Fred] I'll just hold my ears, that's all.
[Dustin] You also don't wanna stand behind me
- when I take off, - I know.
- 'cause I gotta haul ass through here. - I know.
[Dustin] [exhales] Come on.
[Fred] Watch your ears.
[boat motor revving]
[Fred] Whoo-hoo! Got it.
All aboard.
[laughs] How's it going, Fred?
All right, doing all right.
- Yeah, good to see you, welcome back to Haines. - Good to see you.
- Up and running? - Yeah, kinda.
[Fred] So we got an adventure, waitin'?
Gonna be one hell of a ride, I hope you're ready.
Well, I hope I got the right gear.
This is gonna be the wettest boat ride Fred has ever taken in his life.
My boat is banged up and it's running nose down.
So, the water's literally coming over the front of the boat.
If this wasn't such a damn low-budget outfit,
he'd have put a fender skirt all the way around the front end of that boat
to stop all that.
Fred, you need one of these.
[Fred] Well, almost feels like I'm going diving.
I feel like I'm in the Christmas story.
[laughs]
Let's get this show on the road. All right, Fred, you ready?
[motor revs]
[Fred] Whoo! [laughs]
Yee-haw!
[Paul] Water looks amazing,
our, uh, diversion wall is holding up.
[narrator] After nearly striking out,
Kayla and her crew push to get back on track
before winter ends their season.
Well, right now I've got some good, uh, good clarity.
I need to take advantage of it,
see if we can't find some bedrock.
[Kayla] Today I'm gonna have Paul get in the water.
We don't have much to show for our work yet,
so hopefully Paul gets a lot more today.
Um, I'm glad that we saw gold yesterday,
but hopefully Paul can bring up a little bit more
'cause we definitely need to add to the collection.
[Justin] All right, tuck her in.
- [Justin] Everything feel good? - [Paul on radio] Yup.
[Justin] Sounds good.
[Paul] Better get to work.
[Kayla] Does it look like you got much fill-in?
[Paul] There might be just a bit down here.
A few basket rocks.
[Kayla] Hey, Justin, can you work on reinforcing the main wall?
Right now, we've just barely started finding gold,
so that's not the time to have to start over again.
So while Paul's in the water,
we're gonna have Justin work on reinforcing the wall.
So hopefully if the water comes up too much,
it still keeps most of the current in the brunt of the water
on that side, and away from our holes.
[Paul] What the hell?
What was that?
[Paul] I am standing on bedrock.
- [Kayla] Really? - [Paul] Yes.
[Kayla] Is it flattened out?
[Paul] It's got a bunch of, uh...
...it is flattening out.
It's got a bunch of cracks and crevices, and it's thick.
- [Kayla] Huh. - [Paul] It's got a lot.
But it's definitely bedrock.
[Justin] Nice!
[narrator] Nine feet down, Paul has discovered bedrock
sloping towards the center of the creek.
Now he must follow the bedrock down to the deepest point,
in the hopes it contains an untouched pocket of gold.
[Paul] Definitely see shiny flakes down here on the bedrock.
Don't know if it's pyrite or it's gold.
- You said "shiny flakes"? - [Paul] Yeah.
Hopefully it's gold.
[Paul] That's what I'm hoping.
Better get busy.
[Kayla] Definitely makes me feel a lot better about this spot,
there could be a lot more on bedrock
and hopefully a lot bigger gold on bedrock.
Nugget Creek needs to live up to its name,
and so far it has not.
So hopefully that changes before the season comes to an end.
[Fred] Yee-haw!
[narrator] 79-year-old Fred Hurt
has survived his first white-knuckle ride
up the Tsirku River.
[Fred] Whoo, all right!
[Dustin] What'd you think, Fred?
- [laughs] - [Dustin] It's a hell of a ride, huh?
What a ride, what a ride! [laughs]
[laughs] Whoo!
[Dustin] That's different, right?
Oh, yeah, I've run boats all my life,
- but nothing like that. - [laughs]
- It's more like, um... - Flying!
- Yeah. I had... - It's like flying.
It's like flying, except wet and cold.
Whoo! Doing things old men don't do.
[laughs]
Well, welcome to camp again.
All right, you wanna go with me?
All righty.
Little chilly up here.
Ah, back home.
You're perfect.
[Dustin] All right, we did not clean up Scott's stuff, so...
[Fred] Whatever, I'll, I'll fix it up.
Last time I was here, it was nice and warm.
I had jacket weather.
I was sleeping on top of this sleeping bag.
[laughs]
I'm gonna be under two of them now.
Sleeping quarters, done.
See what we got going on up front.
All right.
Oh, yeah! Gold! Gold, I tell you!
[narrator] Up at Nugget Creek,
Carlos is three hours into his dive,
dredging under the shadow
of the 100,000-pound granite monster.
[Carlos] This is scary.
[Wes] Carlos is in today,
he's just moving forward from where James was at.
We think that's, uh, that's where there's
a tremendous amount of gold, is underneath this boulder.
[Fred] These stairs are harder to walk on than anything else.
[Dustin] Carlos is diving.
[Fred] That's a little-bitty hole there, boy, that rock...
that rock just moved!
Holy [bleep].
We're going up underneath there, Fred.
Not without doing something to that rock.
- [Dustin] We did something. - Yeah?
It's got two cables on it right now.
[Fred] Uh-uh.
What does "uh-uh" mean?
Uh, it's just not enough. I mean, that thing has got...
...50 tons.
And you only got, uh, a little,
dinky little [bleep] cable and a one...
What is that? Half-inch on there?
With two cable clamps, hell, that ain't even enough cable clamps.
That's gotta be fixed right away.
The very factor that it's, uh, moved...
...makes it an emergency as far as I'm concerned.
[Dustin] It'll be fine, but I think it's fine already.
I think our cables are getting tight,
and we can screw it out of there.
No. No.
Especially if you take... move any rock down there.
If it moved any at all...
...that thing can go at any second.
- [Fred] Nope. [laughs] - [Dustin] What?
[Fred] That is not enough.
I mean, that's scary.
[Dustin] I feel safe with what we did already.
I think we're just gonna keep digging.
[Fred] Dangerous mistake.
Total disaster waiting to happen.
That's just kind of a common sense thing.
Sometimes common sense is just not too common,
especially when you get tired.
Mentally tired, mentally wore out,
physically tired.
I'm fresh on the job, I'm looking at it,
they don't seem particularly that much problem with it.
That rock, that rock was level when I saw it last.
Tons of disaster sitting there waiting to happen.
Fred wants to tie off the rock more, a lot, lot more.
What he's talking about would take me several days.
What do you do?
Do you take that chance, or do you back off?
Apparently I'm a chance-taker.
[Fred] Setting up a nice little sleeping situation here.
[narrator] Fred Hurt spent over a decade
mining in the Alaskan back country.
And he's learned a thing or two
about packing for life off-grid.
[Fred] Gotta have hats, of course.
Gotta have gloves, but you also...
you can't come empty-handed into a camp.
So you gotta bring a little gift.
[laughs]
Gotta have a little hooch. [laughs]
They wanna have a little, uh, nip every once in a while.
Sure enough.
[Paul] [bleep]. This earth's got so many ups and downs in it.
It is far from flat.
- [Kayla] That's a good sign. - [Paul] Yeah, it is.
[narrator] It's taken six hours
but Paul is on bedrock,
chasing its slope down towards the deepest point
in the hunt for a bounty of gold nuggets.
It sounds like the bedrock isn't very flat, which is really good
'cause it makes for good gold catches.
Now it's just a matter of finding that right gold catch,
finding that pocket of gold,
hopefully finding several ounces instead of just a few pickers.
Paul, it's about 5:00.
- You in a pretty good spot to stop? - [Paul] Yep.
[Kayla] All right.
That water looks like it was super calm today.
It was.
Maybe we should go check the box.
[Justin] Ooh, let's see.
I think I see a piece already.
Oh, [bleep]. Paul, look.
Oh, yeah, there's a couple pieces right there.
- [Kayla] Look at that. - [Justin] [bleep], yeah, one's close to you as well.
- [Kayla] There's chunkies in there. - [Justin] Yeah.
That's definitely a good sign, I mean,
bedrock's there.
There are cracks and crevices in it, so.
Damn, that's not bad.
Starting to add up a little bit.
[Paul] Damn.
[Kayla] Getting chunky.
[Paul] I like that.
- [Justin] They've gotten character. - [Paul] Yeah, they do.
[Justin] That's awesome. [bleep].
[Kayla laughs] That's a decent little pile.
- [Justin] Yeah. - [Paul] Not bad at all.
- It's a good sign. - [Paul] It's a good start.
We've worked so hard and have had no reward
for any of our efforts, and to now start seeing a little bit of gold,
it definitely gives us a lot of hope.
The fact that we found gold two days in a row
is a really good sign, hopefully it continues to get better.
[Paul] I mean, we're on bedrock, we are finding gold,
but that deep pockets is...
that's what's gonna have everything in it, so.
That pocket of gold could be right upstream from us right there.
Only time will tell now. Hopefully we can get to it,
hopefully we don't get flooded out.
And, uh, hopefully we all go home rich.
That's what we're here to do, find gold.
Yeah, from here that looks sketchy as heck.
[narrator] Carlos has spent the last five hours
dredging in the danger zone
beneath the 50-ton boulder,
risking certain death
in his pursuit of life-changing gold.
[Carlos] Just beneath, taking it down
one rock at a time and hope this whole boulder
don't frickin', uh, come down on us.
It's a little dangerous.
That's why I keep watching up there to see if anything moves.
Two-thirds of that rock is trying to fall in that hole.
Every time I look at that thing, that thing gives me the willies.
[Carlos] Hope you're still watching, man.
I had to come up and look at it.
I didn't want to flex on it, man,
'cause I'm not trying... if I don't look at it, it's doing a diss.
I think they're worried about it.
If they're worried about it, you gotta pay attention to it.
Particularly if it's a concern of the diver, which it is.
[Dustin] [bleep], man. Diver up!
[Carlos laughing] All right, man, diver's coming up.
[James] Diver coming up.
[Carlos] See that? See how it's starting to slip a notch?
[James] Dude, it looks more and more sketchy every time I look at it.
[Carlos laughs] I know, man.
Hey, Fred, you should check out and see what's in the box.
[Fred] Better be some gold in there.
Hey, Fred, how's things going?
[Fred] How you doing, man?
- [Carlos] I haven't seen you. - Yeah, yeah.
- Good job, good job. - I sure hope there's gold.
[Fred] Come on, baby, come on.
I don't see nothing down there.
[Carlos cheering] There it is!
- [Dustin] That looks good. - [Carlos] There it is!
[Dustin] There's a lot, I can see it from here.
- [James] I can, too. - [Fred] All right.
- [Dustin laughing] - [Carlos] Look at this!
[James] What you got?
[Carlos] Ah, pickers.
- [James] Wow, look at that. - [Carlos] Look at that.
- [Carlos] Look at that baby. - [James] That's a cool looking beast.
[James] Like, crystalline gold.
Look at this.
- [Fred] That's gold. - [James] That's a rare type of gold.
Oh, [bleep].
[narrator] Crystalline gold is textured and jagged,
indicating it's not traveled far from its source.
That's gold. That's gold.
- [Dustin] See how weird that looks? - Looks like it.
See how weird it looks?
I ain't never, uh... oh, that's been smashed, I can tell you that.
[laughs]
[narrator] Somewhere nearby lies the motherlode
that Dustin has been searching for.
[Carlos] Gonna be a frickin' pocket in there, man.
- [James] Crazy. - Underneath that boulder,
you're gonna get that weird frickin' crusty gold.
[Dustin] We're getting gold,
finally getting gold somewhere, just...
It's just big boulder situation now.
Not sure exactly what to do about it.
The season's almost done...
...and, uh, we just started getting gold
every day.
The only real problem we have right now is...
...giant boulder over our head that's gonna smash us like bugs.
What do you do?
[narrator] Next time on Gold Rush: White Water...
We need to sew the entire rock together up on top.
I would wait until Fred put the chains on.
[Dustin] Go get his [bleep] thing. Go get his thing.
Take a minute. We're gonna get killed like that.
Kayla's on a mission right now.
At the fast pace she's working,
it's gonna work us to death.
Damn! This is exciting. We're getting it.