♪♪
Oh, [bleep]
Dustin!
Narrator: At rockfall ravine,
A month of lifting the biggest boulders the crew has ever seen
Has wrecked their rock pulling system...
There's one of our anchor bolts.
...Putting a stop to them
Dredging for chunky gold nuggets.
The other one's about to pop.
Yeah, it popped one bolt at least.
Started pulling the other one out.
Oh, so we have broken anchors? [ sighs ]
I guess our mammoth fall put your anchors to the test, huh?
There's no way we're diving. Let's work on that skyline.
Fix the broken bolts.
You've gotta make sure that everything's safe enough
To really pull on some gigantic boulders.
Marine veteran carlos baynor volunteers to drill
The new anchor bolts into the cliff face
30 feet above the raging creek below.
Why don't you drill some holes? Make sure they're deep enough.
I need you to set up a come along,
Put two or three shackles on that.
Make sure it's all set up. James, you know what to do?
Yep. Do it.
[ drill whirs ]
How's that hole coming, man?
I think I messed it up because it's just spinning there --
Just spinning in the chuck.
You alright?
I'm not comfortable at all.
Okay. Stop. Stop, stop, stop, stop.
[ grunts ]
Yeah don't -- leave that in there, come up.
♪♪
[ grunts ]
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What are you doing?
[bleep]
Hey. Carlos!
Fred: We need to toughen up and get the job done.
What could possibly go wrong?
Dustin: I got a spy from fred's team.
Pain in the butt.
[ speaking over radio ] it's a big damn rock, man.
I think I'm sliding.
Ohhh! Ughh!
Ooh, that was rough.
Scott: If there turns out to be no gold down there, though,
I guess I'm eating noodles for a looong time.
Gold can't swim in liquid dirt.
Our nugget day!
Get out of here, man.
Look at that. Wow. This is gonna be amazing.
-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com
Captions paid for by discovery communications
Dustin: Don't fall.
Carlos: [ grunts ]
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What are you doing?
[bleep] whoa.
Hey. Carlos! Dustin!
Dustin: How you doing, man?
How do I get the [bleep] up here?
Alright. Hold on. Hold on. Stop.
Here's what you do -- you grab that one,
And you pull that up.
Yep. All the way.
Now reach up and grab that rope and take a step.
[ grunts ]
Ah. Whoa.
Man, it's always a weird feeling, right?
Yeah, it -- [ exhales deeply ]
Take a break. Come back to it.
Oh. I gotta figure this out.
Narrator: For dustin's crew, the clock is ticking.
They now have less than 60 days in their season
Before the alaskan winter hits hard.
This is taking forever.
Dustin risked his life savings buying these claims.
Finally, the gamble is starting to pay off,
Pulling out nuggets every dive.
But hiding the nuggets are monster boulders
That have destroyed their skyline anchors.
I think we're done with this.
Basically, we just reset our anchors and tightened it up,
Tightened up our skyline again.
It's tighter now. Bigger, better bolts.
So now I can get back to work. Find a big pile of gold.
♪♪
Scott: We're still out in the same [bleep] box.
Fred: Today is the day, fellas.
I can feel it, man.
Narrator: Upstream at the trifecta,
Fred hurt has staked his season on finding an ancient waterfall
With a plunge pool flush with gold.
But unlike dustin,
Fred's skeleton crew have found next to nothing at all.
Well, if there turns out to be no gold down there, though,
I guess I'm eating noodles for a looong time.
Fred's newest diver, scott,
Is unable to dive...
[bleep]
...After injuring his hand last week.
Sliced right through, and these are down to the [bleep] bone.
And it's uncertain what his most experienced diver, paul,
Will return.
We're already missing paul,
And it makes it really, really hard
With the amount of work that's on all of our backs.
Narrator: Down to a two man dive crew,
Fred and ryan are on double dive duty.
You can go about every three days
And go diving -- it's okay.
But, boy, you try to do it day after day after day...
It's not a good situation.
Narrator: Ryan took the last dive, so it's fred's turn today.
Looking good.
How's that?
[ speaking over radio ] feels good.
Go ahead, fred.
[ inhales deeply ]
Whooo! My forehead is cold.
It's gonna follow that on down that bedrock wall
Until the bedrock flattens out.
And that's what we have to do to get to the gold.
Narrator: Fred's theory is that the trifecta
Was once the site of an ancient waterfall,
Creating a 20-foot-deep plunge pool.
Now at seven feet, fred must head straight down
Through another 13 feet of rock and gravel
To get to the gold-rich bedrock floor below.
Fred: This gotta be a waterfall.
Got a dip in the bedrock.
You got a dip in the bedrock,
You got a good place for catching gold.
Hope and pray that when we get down there,
He's right and there's a bonanza of gold down there.
Narrator: Fred's hose sucks the gravel up
And sends it to the sluice box
Where the gold should settle in the riffles.
You see that this is all jagged right here.
It's all full of little layers right here.
This is not carved out by glaciers.
This is carved by water.
Narrator: Fred believes these layers in the rock face
Could be evidence of his ancient waterfall.
Scott: The side that we're we're dredging,
You can see all the jagged edges sticking out.
It's like nature's sluice box right through there.
I agree 100%, man.
We're gonna find some gold down in there.
I guarantee it.
I hope so, man. We need it.
Fred: Yeah, this is good material.
Scott: [ speaking over radio ] how's it goin', fred?
Narrator: After an hour of dredging good-looking gravel,
Scott and ryan check the sluice box.
You know, there should be a lot more material in this thing.
Yeah, pretty gloomy looking box today, buddy.
Yeah.
[ speaking over radio ] fred?
What now?
I've got a problem.
What the hell are y'all doing up there?
We're having some problems.
Fred, this box is empty.
This is not good.
Alright, shut your motors down.
[ engine shuts off ]
Why don't we just pan it?
See if there's anything at all in that.
Narrator: Scott pans a sample of the tailings
At the back of the sluice to check if they're losing gold.
♪♪
I'm seeing gold in it.
In my mind, it just says that
You're just letting the gold right on down.
I guess I just want to set it up to where we caught
Every [bleep] piece of gold that came through here, period.
I didn't come up here to run a whole bunch of rocks
Just because I wanted them washed.
You know? I came up here to get gold.
[bleep] we're gonna have to do something about this, man.
Narrator: Ryan gets to work.
I'm gonna grind out some of these bars
And I'm gonna bend the riffles up.
That's gonna give us less of an angle
And more of a dead zone behind the riffle
So that gold will have a real nice place to settle
Right in the back of the riffles.
Narrator: As the water and gravel run through the sluice box,
The heavier gold should sink to the bottom
And be caught in the riffles.
But their angle is sending the water and gold
Out the back of the box with the worthless tailings.
Ryan's plan --
Bend the riffles up to increase the water vortex,
Slowing the flow of water, trapping more gold.
[ grinder buzzing ]
All your job.
Here -- we'll bend them up a little bit more here.
You can finish them off.
We don't really have a choice in the matter.
We're just doing the best we can with what we have.
Good job, there, man. Good job.
Narrator: The modification to the riffles
Will finally start catching all the gold
On their way down to the big payday
They believe is on the bedrock.
Fred: By bending those up,
We're gonna be catching more material, I believe,
Than what we're doing right now with these riffles.
Can't wait to get in there
And find out exactly what we're gonna get.
Deeper we go, more gold we're gonna get.
Alright. Good. Perfect.
Narrator: Up ahead...
Ryan: I'm pretty concerned about fred.
He is 77 years old.
What could possibly go wrong?
Ryan: Oooh!
The most lucrative job we've ever had.
[ water burbling ]
♪♪
I'm diving today, so it's gonna be a good day.
So I go get suited up or what?
I think it's time. Water does look good.
As long as it's clear, we're in good shape.
I'd love to just be able to just keep digging and getting gold.
Narrator: After five weeks of raging meltwater,
The worst of the winter snow has thawed,
Improving the dive conditions at rockfall ravine.
Dustin: This is gonna be a hell of a day.
Were you about six feet here?
Yeah, right there. Oh, right there?
Hey, james, did you take any weight off that belt?
10 pounds.
Carlos: Is that hot enough for you?
Feels pretty good.
[ speaking over radio ] hey, you're all rock and roll, man.
In the water.
[ speaking over radio ] I'm goin' down there.
How's the current?
It seems pretty good.
[ breathes deeply through regulator ]
Narrator: The rockfall ravine dive site
Is scattered with buried chunky nuggets.
Dustin's mission is to hunt them down.
Leaving no boulder unturned,
As one small pocket could contain life-changing gold.
Dustin: So I can't see very well.
[ water rippling ]
Should I keep going or not?
Come here, james. Please.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What [bleep] what the [bleep]
What do you got there? What do you got?
No way! What?!
Look at that!
Is that gold?! [ chuckles ]
Put him over if that's gold.
I can't tell down here.
You just don't understand how dark it is.
Holy moly, dude! That's a good piece.
Is it? Yes!
Wow. Good job!
[ chuckles ]
Whooo!
That's crazy! Are you kiddin' me?
Look at that. Look at that gold.
He wasn't even in the water not more than 15 minutes.
Lo and behold, he comes across a nugget.
Can you believe that?
Wow, that's like a quarter of an ounce!
Narrator: For now, dustin's crew are still on the nuggets.
With gold heading towards $2,000 an ounce
And nuggets selling at a premium,
This single find is worth more than $500.
Dustin: This is it.
Hopefully it continues to hand us nuggets every day.
♪♪
Scott: Back to work.
Narrator: At the trifecta,
Fred's skeleton crew still have over 13 feet of rock and gravel
To clear to get down to the bedrock gold,
And only fred and ryan are able to dive.
Ryan: You know, I'm pretty concerned about fred.
He is 77 years old busting a hump down there.
So the plan today is to move a bunch of boulders
And a bunch of rocks down there in our deep hole.
You know, if I can move a lot more boulders today,
Move a lot more material,
It might make it a little bit lighter on fred.
Narrator: Fred's crew have found barely any gold this season,
But he believes there's a payday on bedrock 20 feet deep.
They just have to get there.
Are we ready? You're ready.
Let's do it.
♪♪
But right now, ryan is just filling baskets with rock.
And he's dredging.
He's getting a lot of material out of there.
It's looking pretty nice on this backslope now.
Yeah. Well, good.
Couple rocks left, but not too much.
Yeah, just pile them over there.
Narrator: Ryan's efforts have paid off.
He's deep in the hole by a foot
And dredged material up into the sluice.
Ryan, you can probably just make your way back here.
We're done.
The dredge's working fine. The winches are working fine.
All the anchors holding up. What could possibly go wrong?
Narrator: Fred is staking everything on the trifecta paying out
And needs ryan's riffle fix to have worked.
Fred: How much have you got in there?
It looks like we're catching a little bit more material,
That's for sure. Yeah, I mean --
If we clean that out, say, tomorrow,
Tomorrow afternoon, maybe?
Okay. Good job.
Our box is working a lot better now,
And I'm pretty confident
If we suck up any gold from here on out,
It's gonna stay in the box.
That's music to my ears.
Tomorrow, I'm going down.
[ wood creaking ]
♪♪
Dustin: I need a knife or something like that.
Narrator: At rockfall ravine,
Dustin has been in the water for four hours
Hunting every inch of the dive site for nuggets.
What do you got?
It's another piece, I think.
What?! What? [ chuckles ]
I found the perfect little crevice.
I think it's got about a half-ounce of nugget in it.
I can't tell 'cause it's buried, so I gotta dig it out.
Hopefully it's as big as it looks to my eyes,
But everything looks bigger under water.
[ rock scraping ]
♪♪
Oh, yeah. [ chuckles ]
Look at -- no way, dude!
[bleep] nugget, man, huh?
I'm coming up, james.
Carlos: James, get the gold! James, get the gold!
I got it in my pants
And I can't feel it 'cause of my [bleep] gloves.
Oh, hold on. It's stuck in your gl-- oh! It fell.
Aaaah!
♪♪
Okay.
I'll try it again.
You gonna get it this time?
Yeah, I got it. [ chuckles ]
take the thing.
That's a nice piece. [ chuckles ]
Look at that baby.
Look at that!
That's awesome, man.
He's just picking up nuggets. That's all he's doing.
I like that. That'll work.
So that means there's gotta be some
Going to the dredge, too.
Yeah.
Two nugget day for dustin hurt. Two nugget day.
James: We have company. We got a spy from fred's team.
Scott? Yep.
Good for him. I'd wanna see this place, too.
Narrator: Lack of gold at fred's site
Has pushed new recruit, scott, to investigate the opposition.
How's it goin' up there?
It's goin'.
Ryan put in about three hours today.
We're still on team [bleep] the box,
But we'll get --
We're just moving a lot of overburden right now.
Yeah.
I wanted to check out a rockfall.
Let's see how varsity does it, man.
This [bleep] awesome, man.
You're barely 100 feet over top of this waterfall.
Yeah, this has got real danger to it.
Yeah, it does. [bleep]
First was bigger.
Wes: Yeah, I can't wait to go look in the box.
There's gotta be some in there.
[bleep]
Can't touch it, but you can look at it.
Yeah, that's a piece.
That's all the stuff.
Probably have at least a quarter-ounce of fines in there.
Check that out, scott. Scott: [chuckles ]
Look at that nugget, buddy.
Wow.
Scott: Seeing the gold in their sluice box
Makes me a little annoyed at our spot.
You know, somewhere up creek, there's that mother lode.
And I'm really hoping that trifecta is that right spot.
Dude, just come work on our side, man.
I would love to be over here, brother. I really would.
I would take that opportunity in a flying heartbeat.
Narrator: Dustin's crew are on a winning streak.
Their nugget hunt is paying off.
We're getting really good nuggets out of this thing.
I hope it continues all season to tell you the truth.
This is --
This is great.
[ water burbling ]
♪♪
Narrator: At mckinley camp,
Carlos is up early, hungry for nuggets.
I'm diving today and my main focus
Is the competition to get gold.
Narrator: On his last dive,
Dustin pulled out two quarter-ounce nuggets
Worth over $1,000,
And carlos is determined to stay on the gold.
Who wouldn't want to have a day that -- dive day like that?
Pulling out gold. You know?
Everybody wants to pull out gold.
Get the gold!
♪♪
Gonna be a [bleep] an awesome dive today, dude.
Yeah, we can take things slow and easy.
I am expecting a lot of gold, man.
'cause I know you're good with the gold.
I can't wait to see what happens when I go in there.
Narrator: But dustin wants carlos to switch track
And do some heavy lifting.
Hold on. Hold on. Nope, not yet.
To keep the crew safe,
His plan for carlos is more grunt than glory.
You're gonna go down there. There's gonna be some rocks.
Move those.
Okay. These rocks right here, I'll move them, man.
No problem. Some deadly ones here.
I got it, man. I'll assess the situation.
[ breathes deeply through regulator ]
[ speaking over radio ] diver going in the water.
♪♪
Ooh. [bleep]
Oooh, I see you, rock.
This is a boulder, man.
[bleep] dude.
That's what's gonna kill us is those big teetering boulders
That the current is hitting so hard,
You just know they're gonna go.
Narrator: A giant boulder is hanging
Directly over dustin's dive site
Making the area a kill zone.
If the crew continue to dredge the dirt
And rocks beneath the boulder,
It could come loose, crushing anything in its path.
Carlos' mission --
Remove the boulder from its unstable position
Using the skyline and clear the boulder downstream.
Honestly, I didn't anticipate rocks the size of cars.
This is one of the biggest boulders we've tried to move.
Narrator: This three-ton boulder
Will test the skyline anchor bolts to their limits.
Am I safe?
You are safe right there.
Okay.
There she goes!
Goin'. [ laughs ]
That's just movin', too.
That's a [inaudible]
That's good. Bring it in.
[ straining ] holy moly. Holy moly.
So stressful! Oh, my [bleep]
[bleep] dude.
Holy moly, you're halfway there.
It almost got stuck in there, man.
Oh! Oh!
Rocks falling! [bleep]
Look at that.
I can't believe you get that out of there
Now that far, dude.
Holy moly, man.
Come on!
There it goes!
Is it moving? Yeah.
Oh, there it goes.
Come on, come on. Come on. Come on. Come on.
[ metal creaking ]
[ metal stretching ]
Oh! [bleep]
[ metal clanking ]
James: Whooooo!
Holy [bleep]
You know your skyline's doing good
When you can pop cables like that.
Wow!
Dustin: Well, that's the biggest rock we've ever moved here.
There's no doubt of that. It was enough to break a cable.
Narrator: Now the boulder is out of the way,
The dive site is safe.
Carlos has achieved the mission and gets back to the glory
Of hunting for more nuggets.
Carlos: Alright. Show me some gold, man.
Let's see what I got!
[ rocks clattering ]
♪♪
Alright, man. I've got a nugget today.
A nugget. Whoa! [ chuckles ]
What the [bleep]
[ laughs ] look at that nugget!
Oh, my [bleep]
That's a pretty nice nugget.
Dustin: That's a nice nugget.
So carlos came up with a nugget
That came out from underneath that mammoth rock.
Another pretty nice nugget.
Carlos: [ laughs ]
He's trying to pull out another nugget right now.
I can hear him.
Carlos: [ chuckling ] it's another day for me.
Ohh, man. They're getting better.
That one broke in half!
Wes: That's beautiful, man.
I love that you're getting comfortable
Bringing up two nuggets one day, buddy.
Yep. I love it.
That's the norm for us now, dude.
Yeah, that's the daily norm
Is at least bring up two nuggets.
How about that?
♪♪
Of course, man. Getting tired, though.
Narrator: Four hours in
And having matched dustin's two nugget dive,
Carlos is low on energy and ready to call it a day.
Carlos: Whoa, wait a minute.
[ sing-song voice ] it's a three nugget day!
It's a three nugget day. Three nugget day?
It's a three nugget day! Ohhh.
Carlos, I think you got the record on this one, buddy.
Three nugget day. Ohhhh [bleep]
[ chuckles ]
Damn, man! Look at that, huh?
That is beautiful. Whoo! [ chuckles ]
Oh, my goodness.
Three nugget day!
Three nugget day.
Look at that. Beauty. Look at this.
Uh, what number in my hand?
What number in my hand? Oh, my [bleep]
This will be number four.
That is awesome.
You're on fire right now, man.
Look at you. What you got?
Ha haaaa!
Oh, my [bleep]
It's even bigger than the last one.
[ laughs ]
[bleep] carlos, you are on fire.
Whoo-hoo-hooo!
[ chuckles ] nugget!
[ laughs ] look at you, man.
That's number four. That's number four, man.
It's gonna be real hard for me to beat this.
You're my hero right now, man.
That's nugget number four he's brought up by hand.
[ breathing deeply through regulator ]
Alright, man.
Oh, [bleep]
James: Good job today, man. Damn it.
[ groans ]
Whoo! [bleep] I'm free!
Good job, dude. Awesome dive, man.
Aah. Dustin: Hey, carlos.
I don't even have to check, man.
That's the most lucrative dive we've ever had ever.
That's crazy, right?
Hands down across the board,
The most lucrative dive we've ever, ever, ever had.
You kept this boy for two frickin seasons
Without seeing nothing, man.
Yeah? Yeah?
You pull out three or four nuggets?
Four. I'm so jealous.
That one boulder, man.
Narrator: The combined value of carlos' four nuggets
Is over $2,000.
They're onto a bonanza of gold,
Meaning rockfall ravine is on track
To become the most gold-rich ground of their lives.
Carlos found gold right where we thought we'd find gold
Underneath one of the big boulders.
Four nugget day, brother.
Four nugget day, man.
Dustin: The old timers couldn't move the big boulders.
I think they skipped over a lot of stuff
That was way too hard to dig.
But we had to be stubborn enough to keep doing it,
Creative enough to be able to pull this off,
And tough enough to just keep going.
We did.
And now it's paying off.
I hope it continues all season.
Narrator: Up ahead...
You just never know when you're gonna find gold.
Scott: I'm so frickin' excited.
James: You got a big one? What?!
This is the biggest one that he brought up so far today.
Get out of here, man.
Look at that. Look at that.
[ water burbling ]
♪♪
Ryan: I'd like to see some gold in the box today.
We could sure use it.
Narrator: At the trifecta, morale is low.
Fred's crew have found next to no gold this season
And still have over 12 feet to go to reach bedrock.
Fred: I'm thinking that there is
Some sort of a hole to catch the gold in.
Anything got in there could be a bonanza.
It would be good for the morale of the crew,
And it sure would be good for my morale.
Narrator: Down to just a two-man dive crew,
77-year-old fred is forced to dive
For the second time this week, and the pressure is on.
It does put us in a bind
Because it's little more strenuous on the divers
And it will be a test.
We need to toughen up and get the job done.
Hopefully breaking it down there dredged that material up
And there'll be some gold in it.
You know, we gotta clean up at the end of the day.
It'd be nice to have some gold in the box.
Alright.
Go down there and give her hell.
Good to go.
Well, we'll see how things go today.
Scott: Go get in there, gold hound.
Looking good down here. Let me look around.
Scott: If there ends up being no gold back there,
I'm gonna be growing my own vegetables in the backyard
'cause I'm gonna be broke as hell.
So I hope fred's right. I really do.
Narrator: Fred dredges up small rocks and gravel,
Sending them to the sluice box and deepening the hole.
Ryan: What's the material looking like down there?
Are you seeing any change in the layer?
Fred: Lots of small rocks. A lot of them go up the dredge.
It's alright. Well, good, man.
You ought to be able to make a lot of headway today, then.
You got it.
The box is looking a lot better today.
Narrator: The change in riffle angle
Is already showing better results in their sluice box.
Yeah, I'm down.
I know I'm [bleep] deeper than I've been down.
Well, fred's down in the hole now,
And he's about 8 1/2, 9 foot down.
So he's starting to get into some new material.
He's running a lot through the sluice box.
And, you know, we're really hopeful at the end of the day,
There's gonna be some gold in the box.
Narrator: For two seasons,
Fred and dustin dredged just 10 feet from here
And failed to hit it big.
You're coming up on 4 1/2 hours.
Narrator: But fred is convinced that they were diving in the wrong place.
And right now he's directly above a gold ridge plunge pool.
We're just over eight feet here, almost nine feet.
So hopefully this next layer
Is gonna give us at least something.
It can't get no worse.
Holy crap. The world is going straight down almost.
The bottom just doesn't go straight out.
So there's a big area here that's really deep.
It's a good possibility this hole is part of the bowl
On this waterfall. Whooo!
Scott: [ chuckles ] gosh.
Narrator: Nine feet into the hole,
Fred has made a crucial discovery --
A near-vertical wall of bedrock.
Fred believes this is the face of the ancient waterfall
That will lead him into the plunge pool
And a pile of gold in the bottom of the bowl.
Fred: I'm gonna come up.
Scott: I'm so frickin' excited.
This may very well be that bonanza
That fred's always talking about,
This bucket of gold down there,
So there's only one way to find out
And that's just get down there, get to bedrock, and find it.
Whoo!
Good job, fred.
Narrator: Fred's discovery proves to the crew
That his ancient waterfall is more than a theory,
And they could be just 11 feet above a giant payday.
Today was a good dive.
The bedrock is coming down,
And then it drops off 20-something-feet deep.
Any time you find a bedrock that drops off,
It pretty well proves
That you've got a plunge pool right there.
You're gonna look for gold in the bottom of that plunge pool.
[ creek babbling ]
[ water burbling ]
♪♪
Carlos had an amazing day yesterday.
Just nuggets everywhere.
Narrator: At mckinley camp, after seasons of striking out,
Dustin's crew are onto the best gold of their lives.
Dustin: It was crazy what happened.
We're hoping for the same day today.
Narrator: Dustin's desperate to carry on the winning streak
And beat carlos' four nugget record
With his second dive of the week.
[ zipline whizzing ]
Dustin: I'm a little jealous. I'm not gonna lie.
Whoo-hoo-hoo!
That just about ripped my mask off.
I should have grabbed it.
[ gravel clattering ]
The material's never been touched.
And it keeps going down.
Ohh. Look what I can see. [ chuckles ]
James: You gonna bring us some nugget?
[bleep] I think I got it.
[ breathes deeply through regulator ]
My gosh.
♪♪
That's good.
Good morning, sir. Yeah.
One nugget. Three more to go -- catch up to me.
As long as we're bringing up golden nuggets, we're happy.
You still up there, wes? Yep, I'm here.
It's not as big as the other one, but --
That doesn't matter. That still counts.
It's just numbers.
That works.
Second nugget. [ laughs ] got two!
Got two more to go to catch up with carlos.
Oh, it's coming.
Alright, you can bring me a basket.
Okay, copy that. Basket's coming in the water.
Thank you.
Oh, [bleep]
Not sure what time it is, but this has to get done.
Copy that.
Just keeps going down. Straight, straight down.
That's insane, man. How deep do you think you are?
I have no idea.
Aw, man, I'm doing a handstand inside of a hole.
I don't know how you can see with a vis like this,
But he's been down for four or five hours now.
Dustin: Done with this.
Nope. No more gold.
Hold on.
[bleep] yeah. [bleep] yeah!
You got a big one?
What? What?!!
What?! Whoo! Aw, hell yeah!
They're not too huge but they're [bleep] in there.
Ah, I can barely stand up, bro.
[ groans ] oohh!
Carlos: Oooh! [bleep]
[ chuckles ] aaaah!
Carlos, is that three now?
That's two! Two?
No, that's three. Ah! Three! [ chuckles ]
He's catching up to you!
Wes: This is dustin's third nugget.
This is the biggest one that he brought up so far today.
It's probably close to a quarter-ounce, just guessing.
Every time we get under boulders,
Get into deep areas, there's nuggets.
It's awesome.
And that's gnarly. That hasn't traveled anywhere.
So there could be a source right here close to where we're at.
We know for sure that none of the old timers,
Nobody has been to this area yet.
This is what we've been looking for.
Carlos: There's gold in there?
You gotta shut it off, man.
I think so.
Narrator: Dustin has been diving for five hours,
Determined to beat carlos' four nugget record.
He digs us up a grave every [bleep] time.
When he gets tired, he's just going after the gold.
Dustin: Oh, [bleep]
[bleep]
What now? [bleep]
What, what, what?!
What?!
Wes: You got a big one?
I think my mind playing tricks on me right now.
[ chuckles ]
I'm comin' up.
[ grunts ]
Oooh! Oh! [bleep]
[ laughs ]
There's a couple of them.
Whoo! Four nugget day! It's gettin' bigger.
Get it! Oh, my [bleep]
That's like, a quarter of an ounce, dude.
I...Had a great big day, and I am exhausted.
Narrator: Dustin's hard work has paid off.
These four nuggets combined are worth over $2,000.
Good dive, man.
What a job, what a job. Four nugget day!
Awesome dive.
You look tired, dude.
You sound like you're going to pass out.
Ooh, that was rough.
You're gonna carry me out here. [ laughs ]
I'll bring you up in the basket.
♪♪
[ water burbling ]
♪♪
Right now, we're getting ready for our first cleanup.
I'm nervous. It can be horrible.
Narrator: At the trifecta, fred's crew are having doubts
Heading into their first cleanup of the season
After blowing gold out of their sluice box.
You just never know when you're gonna find gold.
You just never know.
And, well, you never know when you're not gonna find gold.
Narrator: Fred has discovered what he believes
Is the wall of the ancient waterfall.
But his skeleton crew need more proof
That they are on track for a massive payday,
So fred is called for the first cleanup of the season.
It'd be really disappointing to be doing all this work
For the last month or so now and...
Nothing to show for it.
I'm not really looking forward to this.
Ryan: I'm a little worried myself, brother.
All you can do is hope for the best.
That thing's heavy.
Worth its weight in gold.
[bleep] hope so.
♪♪
What are you seeing in there?
Things are looking pretty damn good right now.
You know, for overburden, this is pretty good stuff.
Whooo!
Oh, yeah. There's gold in there.
Every single pan, I'm seeing gold in it.
Scott: Bending those ripples worked perfectly.
Narrator: The crew are still 11 feet away
From the bedrock floor,
But even this small amount of gold is a promising sign
That fred's ancient plunge pool theory is right
And they could be in for a monster payday.
Scott: It's pretty sweet to see this from our overburden.
I can't wait to see what we get when we get to bedrock.
This whole area is one ancient waterfall.
Deeper we go, the more gold we're gonna get.
Any time you can find any gold at all,
It's a good day.
♪♪
What a dive.
Narrator: At rock fall ravine,
Dustin has pulled off a five-hour dive
And already matched carlos' four nugget record.
Now he's banking on the sluice box
To break the tie.
Nuggets!
Big nuggets!
Come check it out. They're glowing.
Look at that.
Oh, man. This is the best we ever done.
Holy crap!
Wes: This is the best I've ever seen the box.
That one nugget's at least a half-ounce,
Three or four quarter-ounce nuggets,
A bunch of smaller nuggets.
So right now, gold is running pretty close to $2,000 an ounce.
So you look at that right there
And I've got probably $5 grand sitting in my hand right there.
Check this out, dude!
What are we talking about, man?
Wes: Well, we're talking about a lot.
Get out of here, man. Look at that.
That is beautiful.
Look at that. That is beautiful.
Carlos: Talk about a lucrative dive.
I work for that, man. Holy cow.
I was getting changed and I leaned down to grab my socks
And started just throwing up. I'm like, "oh, my god."
Went way past my limits.
Well, you overworked yourself today. That's for sure.
That is the definition of gold fever --
Pushing your body till you about to pass out underwater.
I never, ever seen that much gold ever, bro.
Narrator: This pile of chunky nuggets
Is a breakthrough for dustin and is worth more than $8,000.
We're trying to find places the old timers didn't get,
And I'm pretty sure this nugget ball at rockfall ravine
Is one of those places.
I went broke getting these claims
And basically didn't know if it was worth it.
Well, it's worth it.
Narrator: Dustin's gamble is finally paying off.
The crew are on the richest ground of their lives.
If they can stay on the goal,
They're in for their best season ever.
It's been a long time coming, but it's finally paying off.
Handfuls of nuggets every day. This is gonna be amazing.
Feels pretty good.
Narrator: On the next "gold rush: White water"...
First dive. I'm excited but I'm nervous.
If you mess up, it could cost you your life, man.
He'll make it. His ego won't let him not make it.
If that thing pops up,
It just smacks you right in your [bleep] mouth.
-Oh! -Oh! -Oh!
Gotta be careful, man.
We can see quite a few boulders overhanging.
Scott: Oh, [bleep]
Scott, have you got a copy?
Carlos: That's a big [bleep] mother lode.
Ahh!
We all know how much work
It took to get that.
Finally doing it, guys.
Finally doing it.