[eagle squawking]
[Dustin] Welcome to my nightmare.
[dramatic music playing]
[Carlos] That river has been known
to take boats, eat 'em up,
and spit out whoever's inside it.
[dramatic music playing]
[Dustin] Right now, this water's comin' in so fast
that it's fillin' in.
If I try to pull on one boat, nothing happens,
and the other one's pinned down.
So I almost have to unbury
to dig out both boats in order for one to move.
[dramatic music playing]
[Paul] We've made it all the way past
the most treacherous part of the river.
For some reason, I guess our steering cable
came loose, got stuck in the prop.
We heard a big bang.
[Paul] Ah, ya mother [bleep]!
[James] And the boat shut off.
We were coasting in the water.
I drove my airboat out to try to rescue them.
In this freaking crazy strong current,
that smashed us up against the wall.
[Dustin] Hold on! Oh!
Everybody almost nearly died.
[Dustin] Now, they're full of rocks.
We have to dig out these boats.
The dredge is the only way that's gonna happen.
[helicopter blades whirring]
[man] Here it comes.
[Dustin] So I send a helicopter up
to get the dredge.
Otherwise, the boats just live there forever.
[man] Holy [bleep]!
He was straining to pick that up.
I hope it makes it.
[Dustin] This is gonna be a huge expense to us,
but at the same time, it has to be done.
Can't find any gold if you can't get to it.
[narrator] On the wild Tsirku River,
Dustin Hurt's season hangs in the balance.
[Dustin] This is a huge setback,
but we have to have the boat.
There's no way to get up there feasible
that's not a billion dollars.
[narrator] The airboats are critical
to their remote operation...
[Dustin] Let's start that bitch up.
Start digging like a [bleep] maniac.
[narrator] forcing Dustin to tap into this season's profits
to fund the rescue mission.
[motor starts]
[Carlos] Well, honestly, man, this is freakin' BS crap
right here, man.
But we need those airboats.
Those airboats, those are our tickets
back and forth to work.
If we can't get to work, we can't get gold.
[James] Time is of the essence.
We need our transportation out of the water.
[Dustin] I'mma tell you right now,
if you stick that inside to one of these machines,
it's just gonna gobble for hours.
It'll just...
It'll pull for 2 feet a round.
[James] Yup. I agree.
[Dustin] I say turning 'em all the way up.
[James] There you go.
[Carlos] Be ready to go diving.
Same thing that we do for gold,
but right now, these airboats
is our freaking nuggets right now.
[Dustin] More freaking chance at this.
Come on.
Our season depends on it.
Watch out! Pop! [whistles] Get out of there.
Get out of there.
[thunder rumbles]
[Carlos] It's like the freaking dominoes of death, man.
[Dustin] That old section right here above us
wants to come loose.
[dramatic music playing]
[Carlos] Find some gold!
[Dustin] Time to pay the bills,
get to the bottom of this damn thing.
- [man 1] Hey! - [man 2] Oh, [bleep].
Are you all right?
[Dustin] You got blood everywhere.
We can't stop.
The winter is here already.
Oh-oh, I think I just felt bedrock.
Ooh!
[Paul] That's gold, isn't it?
[Carlos laughs] First gold!
[Dustin] It's only gonna get more and more after today.
[man] Work on and hit that pay streak.
[Dustin] Big-ass boulder.
I know that there's gold at the bottom of this.
[dramatic music playing]
[Dustin] See if we can empty that boat.
There's tons of rock up in here.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] Barely a month left of the mining season,
Dustin is in the fight of his life.
[Carlos] [indistinct] and around the other side.
- Yeah. Don't you hear? - [man] All right.
[Carlos] Yeah.
[narrator] Spending precious time and money
to get his operation back on the gold.
[dramatic music playing]
[Carlos] Is this person thinking?
[Dustin] Hey, Carlos.
Is there anything I can do to make your life easier?
[Carlos] Oh, no, man. I've got a [indistinct] man.
[narrator] Over 4 miles from civilization,
the strong currents are filling the two airboats with gravel,
pinning them to the river bottom.
The plan?
Use the dredge hose to suck up the tons of material
that has filled the hull,
so the crew can attempt to free them
with a come-along from the river's stranglehold.
[dramatic music playing]
[Carlos] I'm just gonna jump to this other side.
[Dustin] How's it goin' down there?
[Carlos] All is fine, dude.
[Dustin] Hey, James?
He said my boat's cleaned out,
so can I get you to put that [bleep]
big and stupid come-along, hook it on there?
[dramatic music playing]
Yo! Get it to us, those couple clicks.
One more.
I think it moved.
Another.
Holy [bleep]!
[bleep] movin'!
[bleep]. Yay!
Let's see if we get it to turn and flatten out,
then we could, uh, empty out all the water
because I can't get all the water out of it at that angle.
Ready to go for a ride?
Get to swing a little bit.
Come on, baby. Yeah!
[panel clanks]
Hell yeah! Woo!
Woo! Woo! Woo!
[bleep].
- Yay! - Yeah!
[Carlos] Oh, she's back, baby!
Still dirty, but she's back.
That was something, man.
That's a huge win.
We needed this. [bleep] we needed this!
[Dustin] We dredged the boat out
with minimal damage,
bent a few things, but overall,
the boat came out intact.
Now we have to do some engine work to get it runnin',
but the guys did great.
Huge win.
[man 1] Dustin's boat,
his engine didn't go underwater.
We might be able to get his big boat goin' again.
[man 2] Yeah. That's easy. I could fix that, no problem.
[Dustin] Should we try to start it?
[Carlos] Yeah.
[Dustin] Clear prop.
[Paul] Clear prop.
[engine sputters]
[engine starts]
[Paul] Yeah! [laughs]
[man] Hell yeah!
Woo! Woo! Woo!
[Dustin] We got the machine to run again.
[airboat whirring]
[Dustin] Less disaster, people.
Less disaster.
[airboat whirring]
[dramatic music playing]
[Dustin sighs] It's good to be back in camp.
[narrator] Twenty-four hours later,
with both boats now recovered...
We just spent too long diggin' up a boat,
gettin' it floatin' again.
Time to get back to work.
I'mma get diggin'.
[narrator] In the first half of their mining season
at Nugget Bend...
[Carlos] Where did that come from?
- [Dustin] Oh! Yeah! [screams] - [laughter]
[Carlos] There's more gold in there.
[laughter]
[narrator] Carlos uncovered a nugget worth over $50,000.
- Oh, my. - [man] My.
[Dustin] That's the biggest nugget
in Gold Rush history right there.
It's not just stories anymore.
This place is for real.
[narrator] Determined to find more monster nuggets,
Dustin gambled on a move 250 feet up creek...
We're gonna go back where we were last year.
- [man] Really? - [Carlos] Holy moly, man.
[narrator] back to big-ass boulder,
the dive site that, last season,
nearly broke them.
[man 1] Oh! Phew!
[man 2] Phewie!
[Dustin] Everything is falling into place
and I can't wait to see how much gold is down there.
[narrator] But when Carlos took the first dive...
[Dustin] How's it lookin', Carlos?
[Carlos] Oh, this is [indistinct] dude.
[narrator] his progress was stopped
by a layer of impenetrable hard pack.
[Carlos groans] This is something different, man.
I've never seen nothing like this before.
[groans] All right.
- Paul, you going down today? - [Paul] Yup.
All right.
Let's try a different method today.
We're gonna try to take the bedrock down,
and with any luck,
you can pry off of the bedrock,
we'll pop that stuff up.
[narrator] Dustin's new plan,
use a pry bar to break down the ancient hard pack
from the bedrock wall.
Then, follow the wall down to the deepest point
beneath the small waters downstream
of big-ass boulder.
That should contain a jackpot of 6-ounce nuggets.
[Carlos] You got that small freaking crowbar out there?
- The small one? - [Paul] I think so.
This might be a lot better. I like this plan.
So yeah, let's get out there.
- You're in? - [Paul] Yup.
And here we go.
Sounds great.
We got to find this gold line.
[dramatic music playing]
[Dustin] [grunts] I'm psyched, man.
[sighs] I think we're gonna get a lot of work done today.
[Carlos] I think today's the day, man.
Your hope's gonna come through.
[Dustin] If I can follow that bedrock down
and get us closer to the middle,
I think it'll put us right there by that gold line.
- [James] Well, get as far as you can obviously, but... - [Paul] Yeah.
[Dustin] Just time-wise.
Time-wise, it seems like
if you get down to the gold line,
that would be magic.
- [Paul] It would, wouldn't it? - Yeah.
[Paul] Let me go get suited up.
[Dustin] I know that there's gold in the bottom of this
and nobody's been in this damn hole.
I just have to get down there.
Let's get this done.
Let's find some big, big gold.
[narrator] It's already September 1st.
[Carlos] That's good right there, man.
That's perfect, I think.
[narrator] And in Alaska,
winter comes with little warning.
So the season's getting close,
the weather's starting to change.
It's a matter of time before we either get froze out or flood out.
We're gonna conquer this spot.
Today, I'm gonna follow the bedrock wall down
to get close to the middle,
and hopefully in the next couple days,
we'll be putting a lot of gold in the box.
Today, I'm gonna crush it.
[Dustin] You ready?
[Paul] Yeah.
[Dustin] I think this is gonna work.
[Paul] Yeah, it's been a while since I've dredged.
I hope I can remember how to do it.
- [Dustin] All right. - You're up, buddy. Let's go.
[Carlos] Put that hot water on.
Hot water.
[Paul grunts]
[Dustin] Sweet. Paul, dredge ahead.
[Paul] Let's find some gold.
I'm on bedrock.
Take me to the bottom.
[Dustin] Yeah.
Just follow it, follow it. Keep going.
That's amazing how locked in [bleep] it is.
I can feel gravel everywhere,
but won't suck it up until you break it up.
[soft tense music playing]
[Paul] Never experienced this.
[Dustin] We think that the gold
went straight down the center because there wasn't a huge water.
And then the hard pack laid on top of that.
So we're looking for the ancient bottom
of the very center of this thing,
and that's where the gold is in this creek.
How's it going with the digging?
Is it speeding up at all or just slow paced?
[Paul] A little bit slow, yeah.
[Dustin] Oh, okay.
- It's just all hard pack? - [Paul] Yup.
[Dustin] It's all it is?
Man, this hard pack
is gonna be the hardest thing for us to do.
You know, it's hard to say.
I don't know if Paul's making a good progress
because we're in the hard pack
that we've never seen before.
This virgin ground,
it's like trying to dig through concrete.
[dramatic music playing]
[Paul] That's some of the hardest dredging I've ever done.
This [bleep] sucks.
[Dustin] Let's just take a break.
Settle down, James.
[James] I see gold. Yeah. I see gold.
That's gold, isn't it?
[Dustin] Yeah.
- [Paul] Yeah. - [Dustin] First gold!
[James] I see gold.
Yeah. I see gold.
[narrator] At Nugget Creek...
[James] That's gold, isn't it?
[Dustin] Yeah, first gold!
[narrator] After a change in strategy,
Dustin's crew are on the gold.
[Paul] It's gonna happen but it's like you said,
we're just gonna follow this bedrock down
and find that bottom and work on and hit that pay streak.
[man] That's what we were talking about.
But we know there's a big mother lode down there.
- Yeah. - [Paul] Yup.
[Dustin] It's only gonna get more and more after today.
Let's find some more gold.
[Dustin] I think it's great that we're finding little gold
but that's not what I'm looking for.
I need heavy pay.
I need lots of gold to pay for all this damn gasoline that we're using.
All the beans that we're eating,
knot up on the sides,
and some knot up behind some little boulder.
It's at the bottom and that's where we need to go.
[dramatic music playing]
[Paul] I'm not getting anywhere.
[narrator] But after nearly four hours in the water,
Paul has barely made a dent in the hard pack.
[Paul] It's just... It's just so tight down here.
Everything is still hard packed and...
I feel like I'm wasting time.
[narrator] If it's the same as the rest of Nugget Creek,
they could have another 9 feet
before they hit bedrock bottom.
[Paul] I mean, I feel like I've worked at the same spot all day
and I have not got anywhere.
What do you wanna do, man?
I think I'm gonna go ahead and call it.
I mean, I can sit here and just pick at it,
but I'm not making any yardage.
I've never dredged anything this hard packed in like this.
[Dustin] All right. Just... Let's call it a day.
Okay.
All right. Gather up.
Let's, uh, let's shut her down.
[bleep].
Well, that didn't go the way I expect it.
Really hoping we'd get a big solid hole.
Just... The...
We see a little bit of gold and then we gotta quit?
I guess the hard pack's harder than I think it is.
That's all.
I'm struggling so hard to get a good day of dredging in.
It's killing me.
I was really hoping we'd make some heavy progress today
- and we didn't. - [Wes] We do.
[bleep].
It's a little disappointing, I ain't gonna lie.
We're gonna run out of time if we keep doing this.
[Wes] I know.
We need a solution, not more problems.
- [man 1] [indistinct] off. - [man 2] [indistinct] off.
[Dustin] What's the box look like?
That's actually a cool-looking piece.
[James] To be honest with you, for real,
I did not expect to see any gold.
[Dustin] It's not a half-ounce nugget, but it's a start.
Time to pay the bills,
get to the bottom of this damn thing,
and I'm confident there's huge gold here.
Something that will actually change our lives.
[dramatic music playing]
[Dustin] Morning.
[Paul] What I saw on the weather forecast,
it's not looking good.
They've got us under flood warning.
[Carlos] So is that for today?
[Paul] It starts tonight.
If we're gonna try to make it to the end of this dig
by the start of snow,
at this pace,
we'll be working at this whole...
Just start section for the next three weeks
and I don't think we have more than a month.
[Carlos] Right now, man,
it's the beginning of September,
so it's like 30 days, you know.
Depending on the weather, man,
give 15 days or take away 15 days.
[Paul] You know, I got to thinking
about all that hard pack,
I think we need to bring the high pressure sprayer back out.
[dramatic music playing]
[Paul] This thing's working perfect!
[narrator] At the start of the season,
the crew used steam and a high pressure spray gun
to break up the snow bridge.
- [man 1] Whoa. - [man 2] It's gonna go.
It's gonna go.
Holy moly, man.
Woo!
Yeah.
[narrator] Paul's idea?
Use the high-powered pressure washer
to blast through the concrete like hard pack.
[man] All right. All right. All right.
[Dustin] We need to speed up.
I hope this pressure washer's a damn good solution.
[Paul] I think it is.
[Dustin] I'mma set it down.
- [Paul] All right. - [Dustin grunts]
[Dustin] We've been failing.
The pressure washer has to be the answer.
Hopefully it just chews this stuff up.
If not, then...
Actually, I don't even know what the hell to do
because we gotta get through this.
Gold in the box today, guys.
Guaranteed because the Gold Hound said so.
I just have the good luck with gold.
Dustin's really chomping at the bit because
the, uh...
the production right now is not good.
So my mission today is to rip through this hard pack
and I'm gonna try my hardest.
[engine starts]
[Dustin] Let me know if that pressure washer works
because I'm getting desperate here.
I need you to change that.
[James] I'll make it happen.
[Dustin] I need some digging done.
We're good to go. Rock and roll!
All right.
[breathing heavily]
[Dustin] Our goal right now
is to cut a trench
from right over there,
- over to that wall. - [James] Okay.
I need to know where the center is,
doesn't matter about hard pack.
It doesn't matter about the red stuff.
No Clay.
Don't get stuck on the boulder.
I don't give a [bleep] about any of that stuff.
What I need to know is where the gold line's at.
And that's what you're doing right now.
We're gonna find that gold line.
[James] Yes, sir.
[indistinct]
[narrator] The new plan.
Use the heavy duty pressure washer
to cut through the dent's hard pack,
and make a trench across the dive hole
to locate the ancient gold line buried below.
[James] There it goes.
Look at that.
[man] Good job, man.
[James] I hope that... I hope that tip works.
[man] You got your high pressure sprayed in?
I really have high hopes on this pressure washer.
[tense music playing]
[James] This is working great.
- [Dustin] Is it working good? - [James] Yeah.
So it just cuts right through it like butter?
- That's what I wanna hear. - [James] Yup.
See material real quick.
Finally, we can make some real progress.
[man] That's some pretty good looking material
you got coming over the box now, looking real good.
- [Paul] Oh, yeah. - [man] That's perfect.
It looks like it's working really good.
[James] Actually, turning into a fun dig.
[Carlos] Now we're getting somewhere.
Pressure washer is working.
We're not dead stopped now.
That hard pack meant what's stopping us
to get the gold, the gold's right there.
So, with this high pressure sprayer
cutting right through all that junk,
oh, man, for sure,
James is gonna find some color today.
[James] What I'm doing is that I'm uncovering this boulder
and I got it deep over here.
[Dustin] So, how's he doing?
[Carlos] He's doing good.
He's working on that boulder.
Yeah, I know.
[man] Hey man, what are you getting into?
[James] Oh, there's a big boulder down here.
I'm, uh, exposing the hard pack.
All right.
If you're digging on something,
I know I want you to use...
I want you to use the sprayer.
Okay.
Well, it's a big boulder.
[James] All right, that's okay.
Let's not focus on that.
Just keep going, man.
Just keep going.
Yardage, yardage, yardage, yardage,
much yardage as you can get.
[James] There's lots of hard pack.
I'm gonna clean this whole area
and I'm gonna start
trying to get further up this way here in a minute.
Is he moving any material?
[Paul] Uh, yeah.
He's stuck on getting that boulder unstuck
and that's all he's gonna do the whole day.
Hey, man, you've moved on from that boulder already, right?
[James] Huh?
You've moved on from that boulder
and you're working on yardage, right?
No, I'm working on the hard pack.
[Dustin] Under the boulder?
[James] Around or... I don't know what you want me to do.
[Dustin] Okay. Just... Let...
I want you to do yardage. That's what I'm saying.
Let's get as much yardage as we can.
- [James] Okay. - [Dustin] Don't focus on the boulder.
- That's what I said earlier. - [James] Okay.
- [Dustin] Don't focus on the boulder. - [James] Oh, okay.
[Dustin] Some of my guys get stuck on task,
get focused on one thing and they can't get it undone,
and they won't look at the big picture.
I don't care about that one single boulder right now.
I'm getting a little desperate with this one.
We need to speed the hell up and stop playing around.
He's working hard,
just not on the right damn thing sometimes.
[tense music playing]
[heavy breathing]
[James] It's crazy how much hard pack there is.
Got to be loaded down there.
[narrator] Armed with a high pressure washer.
[James] I got a deep over here.
[narrator] James has battled the cement-like hard pack
for nearly five hours.
[Dustin] All right.
He got something going today finally.
Don't waste your whole [bleep] day on a boulder.
[Carlos] How far... How deep are you...
Think you are right now?
Well, the deepest point over there is probably 5 feet.
Okay.
5 feet.
And you're coming up here,
how deep you think you are right now
at this point?
[James] This?
Um, about 4... 3, 4 feet.
[Carlos] Okay.
From the point where you started till here,
how far do you think you went?
[James] I'm gonna say 10 feet all the way over to here.
Damn, dude. That's some... That's in yardage, amigo.
Freakin' James.
He freakin' ate through a lot of material today
and he is putting us on our way to a solid trench,
going across the whole creek,
which we are trying to find the gold line.
[Dustin] That's a lot of work, man.
- [James] Yeah, man, - [Dustin] I can tell, man.
That's a long, long day, too.
All right, you're up, man.
Diver up.
James, he dug a lot today.
He's got...
We have an actual dig site now.
[Paul] Yeah, we do.
Last two days,
we didn't get very far without that pressure washer,
is what happened.
Today was our first real, real dig.
- That's what that was. - [Paul] Yeah.
And I'm glad he didn't get stuck on a boulder.
Ah, dug a hole.
Yeah, you did.
Watch your head.
[Carlos] Watch it, watch it.
Good job, man.
That's a big area.
I can see that you moved a lot, right?
Yeah, I'm sorry.
- I was confused earlier. - [Dustin] That's okay, man.
[James] It was nice to use the pressure sprayer today.
The pressure sprayer is very productive.
There's just so much hard pack down there
that, uh, it needs to be broken up.
[engine revving]
[Dustin] There's got to be some gold, guys.
[Dustin] You got gold on the grind, man?
[Carlos] Not yet.
[James] Not yet.
[Dustin] No gold today.
It's kind of what we have expected.
The pressure washer worked really well for him,
so we'll get there.
[narrator] Before the crew clock off,
they must prepare for an incoming storm
that could wreak havoc on their dive site.
We gonna pull the hose up?
Wes, put it as high as you can get it, man.
Knowing what this creek can do,
with the floods that are coming,
we're not gonna take any chances.
The weather changes so drastically around here,
we're gonna have to stay through some crazy weather
if we don't get to the bottom of this
because we know there's a lot of gold there.
Right now, it's just a long push,
long hard push to the finish.
We just have to go for it.
[narrator] Overnight.
[thunder claps]
[man] Rain south winds 20 knots
increasing to 25 knots late.
[narrator] Mother Nature serves notice.
That the end of the season is on its way.
[thunder claps]
[man 1] According to the weather reports,
it's not gonna slow down anytime soon.
It's supposed to be like this for the next two, three days.
[man 2] Really?
[man 3] Wait, do you see this?
Oh [bleep].
- [man 1] Landslides. - [man 2] landslide.
This is what's about to start happening.
You see all the bunch of [bleep].
- [man 1] Oh, my God. - [man 2] Wow.
[man 3] We're at saturation level.
[man 4] Danger. Very dangerous.
Ground's giving out.
[Wes] That's what's about to start happening
everywhere around here.
- [man 1] Oh my, God. - [man 2] And that's not good.
[narrator] The rain has saturated the high wall
above the dive site
and the threat of a deadly landslide looms.
[Dustin] That whole section right here above us
wants to come loose.
[Carlos] God, can you imagine that getting buried, man?
- That's... I think... - [James] Buried alive?
[Carlos] I think you only got a couple seconds left maybe
before you get crushed.
That's like a frickin' dominoes of death, man.
[Dustin] Starting to get that weird feeling
that we're not gonna finish again.
I hate that.
In the beginning of the season,
you feel like you got all the time in the world,
and once it starts almost snowing around you,
everything kind of goes downhill.
I get a little panicky right now.
Ah, come on, rain.
Just need you to hold off for another couple weeks,
and I'll be done with this.
[dramatic music playing]
- [man 1] Felt violent-- - [man 2] That felt violent.
[man 1] Yikes.
[narrator] In the remote Alaskan backcountry,
the unwelcome signs of an early winter
have descended on Nugget Creek.
[man 1] Look at that.
[man 2] Freaking water is definitely up.
Look at that mud coming down. It's washing.
Look at that.
Starting to turn different color.
[narrator] The crew have a tough decision.
Dive under the threat of flash floods and landslides
or retreat and fall further behind.
[Dustin] Just when you're starting to get somewhere,
we need to get back to dredging for gold.
Very clearly, we're starting to get behind.
[Wes] It looks like we got another way,
just fixing, to cut right over us anyway,
- and I mean-- - [Carlos] Another wave's coming our way.
[man] It would... It would be nice if we could dredge today,
but I'm afraid that... Yeah.
I know in the past we've dug in conditions like this, though.
[Carlos] I think we'd be wasting more gas
than anything, man.
I'm like you, James, that I'd still like to be down there,
but if that's how we're gonna find gold,
then we are running out of time, like--
I just don't like how we're running out of time.
I don't want it to be like last, though.
- [man] Yeah. - No. But--
[Dustin] You're feeling it, too. I am, too.
Uh, right now, it's getting to a weird place
where we're running out of time.
We just... I just heard about the snow up north
which is freaking me out, by the way.
I think they don't...
They had like a couple of inches of snow already
up north from us right now, and I get what you're feeling,
but it's a high-risk day.
We do a lot of risky things,
if this is on that edge of you're no longer brave,
you're being dumb.
What do you wanna do?
I'm down for it.
[Dustin] All right.
So we're gonna go ahead and dredge in this.
[Paul] Let's do it.
[Carlos] There's definitely a fighting chance today.
We can't stop.
The winter is here already.
We have to find a way to put food on the table for winter.
Gold.
[Dustin] All right. Let's get you in the water, eh?
[dramatic music playing]
[Dustin] If I get you up, it'll be in a hurry.
You never know how hard to drain an upstream is the problem.
That water drops, uh, comes up,
we're gonna pop you up real fast.
Copy that.
[Carlos] We're taking risks diving on days like this.
Reason being...
this wall of dirt right here,
if it gets anywhere saturated, that comes down, all that.
Doesn't seem like a lot, but that's a lot of dirt.
If that comes down, whoo,
the other danger,
it's damming up the stream somewhere,
setting us up for a freaking inland tsunami.
Anything changes, diver has to come out,
no ifs and butting.
[Dustin] All right. You should be good to go.
- You good? - [Paul] Yup.
[Dustin] Let's get to diving, man.
Let's see what we got down there.
[Paul] Copy that.
[narrator] Storm is threatening
to end their season early.
Looks like there's still a hole down there.
[narrator] Paul will put it all in the line
to try and break through the cement-like hard pack,
searching for the gold-rich center line.
[Dustin] All right.
Paul, what's it looking like down there, man?
[Paul] Not bad.
There is something littering in the bottom.
A lot of sticks and debris.
I feel like, man, there's a whole [bleep] tree down here.
I put all my eggs in this basket,
and if there's no gold at the bottom of that basket,
then we're in trouble.
Pressure wash is ready when you are, buddy.
[Paul] Copy that.
[Dustin] We've dug all... Almost all the way across.
That's a trench right now.
Find the bottom.
[Paul] Yeah.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Paul] God, I can't get how you're locked in on this [bleep].
[Dustin] So is this straight or what?
[Paul] It's working with the sprayer right now.
Yeah.
[Dustin] Copy that.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Wes] I don't like it when it does that.
We're getting slacking and going upstream too much,
but it's doing something weird.
God dang [bleep].
I'm tired of this [bleep] don't [bleep] work.
[Dustin] What's wrong with it?
- [Wes] Huh? - [Dustin] What's wrong with it?
It got slack in it.
I'm trying to go upstream and trying to pick up,
and then, it...
I'm gonna pull it now.
[Dustin] Hey!
[Wes] [bleep] hell.
[Dustin] [bleep] are you all right?
Ooh. Look at his hand.
He's bleeding like crazy.
[James] The weather, it just turn up a storm dial,
it's coming down.
Snow on top of the mountain,
I'm gonna see if I can't get us
a big pile of firewood.
[chainsaw revving]
Keep us warm around the fire pit.
After a long wet day in the water.
[chainsaw revving]
[James] I'd like to call this our camp fire gold.
It gets cold and they need to stay warm.
All right. I think that'll do it.
[dramatic music playing]
[Dustin] You guys okay?
Oh [bleep].
He's bleeding bad, y'all.
How bad?
So is these stitches?
You got me worried because you got blood everywhere.
Jesus.
It hit me at full [bleep] force.
I think [indistinct]
Anything broken, busted, besides the blood?
[Wes] Nuh-uh.
Okay.
No, it tweaked me pretty good, but that was it.
Yeah.
[Wes] I got a little bit careless today
and I don't need stitches or anything, just peeled skin.
And today, I was sloppy, I'm paying for it.
But luckily, it was just a small thing
and, uh, I'm good to go.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] Six hours into his dive,
Paul is still searching for the gold-rich center of the creek.
[Wes] Oh, the water is starting to get dirty above.
[Dustin] Looks like the water's changing a little bit.
You ready for a [indistinct] Paul?
[Wes] Watch out, Paul! [whistling]
[Dustin] Hey, get out of there, get out of there, get out of there.
Whoa.
I thought that wall was coming down.
Holy cow.
Is that whole thing gonna slip?
Because you had a little bit of a...
A little landslide there.
[suspenseful music playing]
[narrator] Before the weather shuts them down,
the crew needs to bank more gold
to secure their mining future.
[Dustin] Sorry, I yelled at you like that,
but, uh, I thought that whole thing was coming down,
and I didn't want you to get caught.
[Carlos] We need gold.
Winter's coming too quick, we need gold now.
Everybody can smell the end of the season.
The weather is a constant reminder
that the end of the season is almost here.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Paul] Now, there's this one big boulder right here,
got me blocked in a little bit.
Uh, I'm not seeing a nightshift here,
so it looks like you're at a 10-minute warning right now,
10-minute warning.
[Paul] That's news.
There's about a foot of hard pack
underneath the boulder.
All right.
Well, clean up what you can on it
and just clean up.
What I'm really interested in right now
is where the bottom gonna be is.
It's usually a little bitty piece
that's got a little round bottom,
that's where the gold will be.
I woke up this morning where I'm starting to feel
that gutteral...
don't fail, find the gold, don't fail,
find the gold, don't fail, find the gold.
It just... It's running a loop in my damn head.
[Paul] I'm on the downstream side of that boulder.
[Dustin] Okay.
[Paul] And I almost think I can feel bedrock.
[Dustin] Did you just... I'm trying...
I can't understand you.
Did you just say you think you found bedrock down there?
[Paul] That's what it feels like.
Woo.
[Paul] It don't feel like a boulder, yeah,
I'm kind of curious, because this feels like bedrock.
Do you think that big boulder is sitting on bedrock?
[Paul] I think so.
So we might be in the bottom [indistinct]
It definitely feels like it's slipping up.
[Carlos] He's saying
he think that boulder is lying on bedrock.
That means he's on the bottom.
[Dustin] Hey, Paul, how big do you think that boulder is?
[Paul] Somehow, I can't... I can't reach around it.
It's pretty good size.
Maybe like this, but it's a little bit bigger.
[Carlos] Yeah. I think he says something like that.
[grunts]
[Dustin] Yeah. We're glad to see you, buddy.
Come on, back up. Go sit on that rock.
We'll get you... We'll get you right.
We got to deal with the [bleep]
the constant setback this place is [indistinct]
[Paul] There's a lot of material down there.
Everything coming this way, so locked up.
So that big boulder down there,
hopefully, it's gonna let itself go,
and we'll get it out tomorrow.
We get that boulder out, it's gonna open up
a lot of real estate.
[Carlos] Hell, yeah, dude. That's what we need, man.
We gotta get to the bedrock.
[Dustin] Just not gonna make the end of the season,
uh, before it starts, you know, snow flying.
I need to find out what's at the bottom of this thing.
Just if there's gold down there, I need to know,
I'm getting little worried.
If there's no gold here, um, we're screwed.
It's gonna be the end of it.
This pace, I have to do something to speed this up.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] Next time on Gold Rush: White Water.
[Paul] I am [indistinct] coat blaster, rock and rolling.
This is exciting.
There's lots of gold, baby.
[man 1] Nice.
[man 2] Three, two, one.
- [man 1] Whoa, whoa, whoa. - [man 2] [bleep].
[man 3] Stop, stop, stop, come on, come on, come on.
[Dustin] I don't know if one engine is enough, but we're gonna try.
[Carlos] So right now, he's on a time limit.
This is a very risky idea.
[Dustin] Everybody, cross your fingers.
He's gonna get pulled damn, damn fast.
Holy crap, man.
[man] Pretty little piece of gold.
- Yeah! - [Carlos] Back in business.
[dramatic music playing]