We're trying to look for a better way to get up to Nugget creek.
I don't have a way in right now.
The water is getting too deep for the army truck to make it through.
[man] It's gonna be deep, but it's not as deep as this.
Can't take a helicopter 'cause fuel and cost are just outrageous.
$2,400 an hour?
Thank that was our last trip.
Right now, I'm running out of options.
Either way, I'm gonna learn to drive an airboat today.
Everybody keeps telling me I'm gonna die,
just because I've never actually driven one before.
Here goes nothing.
-Whoo-wee. Holy money, dude. -Whoo!
That's what I'm talking about, right here.
[man 1] It's on loan,
and if this work for us, this could be the answer
to us getting to and from the dig site.
All right.
[man 2] You ready?
-[man 1] Yeah! -Here we go.
[man 3] An old timer once told me,
airboats up the Syracuse is deadly.
[man 4] Well, I don't know.
I think once we learn how to drive it, it might be all right.
Sink or swim.
[man 1] This is not a test of how to drive up a river.
I need to find out how this boat drives.
It's almost like you're taking your dad's car out the first time
-in the parking lot, you know? -[man 4 chuckles]
[man 1] It's about time I learn how to drive one of these things.
You know what I'm most worried about?
You can't let off the gas in the corner 'cause you won't turn.
-Yeah. -Zero power, zero steering.
That's what you gotta remember.
[man 2] So, y'all, I'm a little nervous.
So, let's just do this before I lose my nerve.
[man 2 and 4 laughing]
[man 2] Oh, man.
[man 4 laughing]
[indistinct cheering]
-Whoo-hoo-hoo! Yeah! -Yeah!
Yeah!
[man 1] Holy moly.
Damn. I don't think it likes, these.
That's not on top of water as much as I thought it would be.
[man 2] No, no, no, no! No!
-[man 3] Do you see that? It was dipping into the water. -But... I know.
[man 1] I can't believe I just did that.
[laughs] It's way harder than I thought it was gonna be.
[man 4] It didn't play like I thought it was going to.
All right. That did not instill confidence into me at all.
No, I agree. 100 percent.
With the nose diving in like that, it'll be treacherous.
[man 1] As it's running right now,
I think it's impossible for me to bring an entire crew of people
up the river without killing everybody.
Here we go.
[man 2] Yeah, James!
[man 3] There's a will, there's a way.
[grunts] Damn it.
I got hit really hard, man.
That's a grand entrance.
Yee-hoo! [bleep] damn, I made it!
[all laughing]
[man 1] Bubbles, the Dozer, might be a little crazy,
but I'm pretty sure I heard Bubbles say, "I love Dustin."
All the experience in the past is going to come to bear right now.
[woman] I think this [bleep] too dangerous.
-[Dustin] Holy [bleep]. -That's a damn good sign.
Hey! Hey!
-[man 2] Oh, look at that! -Dustin! I've got some gold, man!
[Dustin] Nugget Creek turned out to be,
well, a lot damn harder than I thought.
[narrator] In the wilds of Southeast Alaska,
Dustin Hurt is gambling his entire life savings
on a new and remote claim.
[Dustin] Did not expect a whole bunch of snow to still be there.
More than we expected.
[narrator] Two weeks ago, Dustin moved his operation
deep into the chill-capped mountains
in search of a monster payda the old timers couldn't reac
I know there's much larger gold here.
It seems like McKinley on steroids.
[narrator] But he was blocke by a 20-foot deep wall of ic
that covers the entire creek
[Dustin] It's under that ice!
It's solid snow up there now.
[man 7] That's a lot of snow!
[narrator] But nothing he di would melt it.
Right now, it feels like this place is out of my league.
We definitely can't dig at our spot yet because of all the snow.
[Dustin] We can't do that.
Nugget Creek's looking real rough, but I'm not giving up on it.
Be really nice to see some gold in the meantime, though.
While we're working on the snow melting,
Mark said that he wanted a dredge crew.
But I don't know exactly what he wants us to do yet.
[narrator] To keep his operation running,
Dustin must find a way to make some money.
[Mark] Every time I see you, I'm looking for something...
[chuckling] ...in my doggone shed here.
How are things going in your world?
[narrator] At the start of this season,
legendary miner, Mark Sebens offered Dustin an opportunit
[Dustin] You had mentioned there was something here that maybe we could dig.
[Mark] Oh, well yeah, come on. You wanna take a walk?
[Dustin] Sounds great, man.
[Mark] So, here's what we got.
The flume was 30-feet wide, eight feet tall,
sitting on pilings, and...
they took all of that creek, ran it through the flume.
[narrator] 100 years ago,
old timers built a massive wooden flume
to divert Porcupine Creek,
so they could mine the riverbed for thousands of ounces of gold.
Mark believed the miners couldn't dig beneath the flume.
So, the area around the pilings could contain
the massive payday Dustin desperately needs.
Last season, Mark started excavating this ground.
[Mark] So, like, it could be for a small support.
[narrator] But the pit constantly fills with creek water,
stopping him from reaching bedrock gold.
[Mark] I know that I can get a decent amount of the material
with the excavator.
But I also just know that I could be leaving...
-ounces and ounces of gold on the bottom. -[woman] Yeah.
Do you have any experienced dredgers?
[laughs] Oh, believe me, we definitely have experienced dredgers.
Maybe we could make a deal here.
So, are you interested in this?
Because it would be you and your crew out here.
It's better than just sitting around,
-waiting for the snow to melt at Nugget Creek. -Yeah.
What do you think about the idea of like, 20 percent?
-Just throwing it out there. -Um...
It seems a little low.
We meet at like, 25 or something,
it might be a little more worthwhile.
Okay, let me think about this.
You know, what are my other options?
I'd like to be there for the clean ups. Okay?
-Of course, yeah. That's fair. -[Mark] You know?
25.
All right, Kayla.
-Well, it sounds good to me, if that works for you. -[Kayla] Sounds good.
[Mark] All right.
[Dustin] Mark and Kayla came up with a deal.
And if it's only a week or two of work,
25 percent of a lot of gold,
that's a lot of payday.
[Kayla] So, this is where we're gonna be digging at.
I see why the flume was here.
Gives you a straight line right down the creek.
[Kayla] Those are some of the timbers from the old flume...
-[bleep] No [bleep]. -Yeah.
Oh, wow. This is gonna be awesome.
Yeah, I thought it was gonna be a lot smaller pond than this.
-This is actually huge. -[Kayla] Yeah, it's good.
He seems to think that it's been untouched.
So, if that's true, I mean, there's potential for really good gold here.
[narrator] Before Kayla set to dredge in the water,
she samples the dry section that was also under the flum
[Kayla] Trying to get that seam where they meet each other.
And hopefully, there'll be a little bit of gold in the pan.
I'd like to see several flakes
in a pan to consider it good.
If I just see one or two specks,
I don't really get excited over that.
[man 8] We good?
[man 7] Ah, no way. Holy, [bleep]!
-[man 7 laughs] -Holy [bleep]!
Do you realize that last year, it was,
what, two months later than it is right now,
before we saw gold like that.
-[laughs] -[Kayla] Well, I mean, that gives us a good idea of what
-could possibly be on the bedrock there. -[man 8] Yeah!
-[man 7] Yep, that's a damn good sign. -[man 8 laughs]
[man 8] Seeing that in the test pan, I got a feeling that when we run a full day,
there should be some pretty good gold in the box.
-This is gonna be fun. -This is exciting. This is gonna be [bleep] sweet.
[man 7] Damn, now I'm ready to get the dredge together and get in the water.
[narrator] As Kayla crew prepares for the first time of this season,
nine miles south, at Nugget Creek,
Dustin has a big problem.
[on radio] ...there better b a lot of gold here.
[narrator] The only safe wa to access his claim,
is completely unsustainable
[Dustin] Just that flight here cost us $1,200.
Gotta make some changes.
Gotta take some risk 'cause
this isn't gonna work out anymore.
Just not gonna work.
[narrator] After nearly killing himself trailing an airboat,
Dustin has an ambitious Plan B.
[Dustin] We have to get a wa in and out of here.
So, next step is, I gotta build an airstrip.
[narrator] To stand any chan of running an effective mining operation,
Dustin needs a supply line for equipment and crew.
Yeah!
[laughs]
Little sketchy.
Right now, we're looking for an area for a runway.
There's this hill right here, and I cannot get up on top of it,
but that's where we wanna be.
And all the maps say there is the best spot.
[narrator] Dustin and his D-4 dozer
face dense vegetation in the hunt for an airstrip
[Dustin] [bleep] ...
Do you see another way?
I can try to do some hiking and see what I can find.
-All the way out that way? -[man 9] Yeah.
[narrator] Wes scouts ahead for suitable ground.
[Wes] Well, I wish I had a freaking machete.
[narrator] A flat area, at least 200 by 1000 feet.
[Wes] At this rate, we keep going like this,
we're gonna have to find ten times as much gold as we have in the past
just to cover our expense to get out here.
Holy [bleep]!
Short alders,
probably a mile of clearing there.
It couldn't be any better than this.
This is a perfect place for our new runway.
-It looks good up here. -[Dustin speaks indistinctly]
If you could just get here, yeah.
[Dustin] I may not make it up there.
But I'm gonna [bleep] try.
Come on, baby.
[Wes] You can make it.
[bleep]
-[bleep] -[Wes] They have tracks.
That dozer is a beast.
[Dustin groans]
I got hit really hard, man.
Yeah. [bleep]
Some of these plants is just trying to take me out.
[laughs]
Got a little loopy there for a little while.
-[bleep], yeah! [laughs] -[Wes laughing]
[Dustin] Yeah!
-[Wes] I found the perfect way! Yeah! -[shouts]
[Wes] This is awesome up here.
-[groans] -Dude, we found it. We're here.
-So, you think we can get a 1000 feet out of this? -[Wes] Yep.
-[Dustin] Oh, wow. It just keeps going, huh? -[Wes] Yeah, look right here.
-How beautiful is that? -[Dustin] Oh, that is nice.
[Wes] There's only like, that tree there, couple of them on the side.
[Dustin] I think we should do this.
-Let me get on it and let's just start tearing it up. -[Wes] Yeah.
[Dustin] Whoo-hoo!
I know it's a lot of work but I think it's gonna be worth it.
The hell do I know about landing an airplane?
I mean, it's good, but I guess it's supposed to be flat.
But I don't know how flat.
[narrator] Back at Porcupine Creek...
[Kayla] I need you to get this dredge fired up,
-I'm gonna go get dressed. -Okay.
[narrator] After finding the first nugget of this season,
Kayla has high hopes for a huge deposit at the botto of the pilings pond.
[Kayla] We've been here for so long without dredging.
I'm excited to get in the water and, hopefully, see some gold today.
That would be ideal.
[laughing]
[man 7] How are you feeling for your first dive?
Hopefully, we'll see some gold.
-Can you hear me, Kayla? -[Kayla breathes] Loud and clear.
Yep, loud and clear.
There you go.
Just be careful, you're weighed down.
[Kayla] Okay.
[on radio] Oh, what the [bleep]?
There's so much sludge down here, it feels like
when you're stuck in a giant pile of dog [bleep.
Like, the biggest pile of dog [bleep] I've ever fe in my life.
[narrator] Silt, made of quartz and shale,
gives the pond near zero visibility.
[Kayla] Can't even touch a [bleep] thing.
There's logs sticking out.
There's [bleep] sticks sticking out of the side everywhere, to get tangled o
[man 7] And if she gets wrapped around, it is gonna be hard
to try to get her out of there.
[Kayla] [bleep] Damn it.
My [bleep] stuck on someth
Man, she's hung up on something now.
That's what I was worried about.
[Kayla] Can't see nothing.
This is too dangerous.
I think we need to figure ou a different way to do this.
[Kayla on radio] There's [bleep] sticks sticking out
of the side everywhere, to get tangled on.
Man, she's hung up on something now.
I was worried about that.
[narrator] At Porcupine Creek...
[Kayla] I think this [blee] is too dangerous.
[narrator] Kayla experience every diver's worst nightmar
[Kayla] Yeah, you can't see With your hand right here, you can't even see.
[bleep] Coming up.
[man 7] You want your mask off?
-Even with white like this... -[man 7 and Kayla] ...you can't see nothing.
It goes black.
I'm okay with the low visibility,
-but not when there's [bleep] to get tangled on. -Exactly.
I think we need to regroup.
[Dustin singing] I'm the bulldozer...
[narrator] Across the mountain, at Nugget Creek...
[Dustin continues singing] Plowing through the alders..
[narrator] ...Dustin makes headway on an airstrip,
a vital supply line for his mining operation.
[singing] I'm a bulldozer!
Here I come!
[narrator] His goal, to build a runway
to allow bush planes to brin in essential mining supplies
[narrator] The airstrip is useless
unless Dustin can unlock Nugget Creek from the 20-foo blanket of ice.
Last week...
-[Dustin] Hey, Fred. -[Fred on phone] What's going on?
[Dustin] Having a whole bunch of trouble.
[narrator] ...Dustin reache out to his father, Fred, for a solution.
[Dustin] Yeah, man. I need some help.
[narrator] Now, Fred races north,
but he's sent ahead a secret weapon
to tackle the ice.
[Dustin] Fred came up with an idea to use a heater to try to melt the ice.
There it goes, right there.
I guess it weighs almost 500 pounds,
so we had to fly it up there.
[garbled radio talk]
[man 3 on radio] 10-4. Thanks, man.
Fred's idea is to take this and melt the snow with it.
I think he's onto something.
[narrator] Fred's plan, repurpose a diver hot water system
to melt the snow and ice from above,
clearing a path so they can dive for bedrock gold.
But all the gear they need to run it
is 500 feet down the creek.
[man 2] Without this generator, we have no power
With no power, we have no hot water.
With no hot water, we still have two football fields of snow and ice
between us and gold.
[narrator] To move the 80 pound generator...
[James] There we go.
[narrator] ...a portable cap stand winch will be use to pull the gear
up the step bear trail.
[James grunting]
Mountain goat today.
[man 2] You have to do in stages, man.
[James] And then, tie off up there and go straight from there.
[man 2] Yep. It's a good idea.
Hopefully, this works.
You know, this is a lot of work and effort.
It has to work. All right, James?
-[James] There's a will, there's a way. -[man 2] Sure.
Come on, baby. Give me some love.
[James] Ooh, here we go. [chuckles]
You're good. It's working.
Phew!
[man 2 laughs]
Yeah, James!
[James] I just got a mouthful of that lettuce.
Yeah! This is just the first part, man.
We still have, like, a [bleep] marathon to go, dude.
[narrator] Now, from the to of the hill,
the cap stand is no use.
Lowering the generator is the toughest part of the mission.
[man 2 grunting]
[bleep]
I think, just with the generator alone, right,
-smaller and everything. -[James] Smaller, we can maneuver easier
-without tripping. -[man 2] Yeah.
-[James groaning] On three! -[grunts]
[James and man 2 grunting]
[James] We're literally rappelling with a generator.
[man 2] Yeah! We're rappelling with a generator, dude.
Holy [bleep], man. Ha!
[exhales] Grab it. Whoo!
[Dustin] Hey, fellas. How's it going, man?
[James grunts]
[Dustin] You guys are getting your ass kicked over here, that's what it looks like.
[James] Pretty much. [chuckles]
-[Dustin] You can set it right there for a sec. -All right.
-[Dustin] Good? -[James grunts]
[Dustin] Uh, grab that rope.
-Come with me. -[James grunts]
-[Dustin] Slow down. -[James]Yep.
[Dustin] Keep going.
-Letting go. -[James] Yep.
-Atta boy. -[James groans]
Ooh, well, we got it.
[grunts]
[grunting]
[Dustin] So, this is it, huh?
-This looks fancy, man. -[James] Yeah.
[narrator] Fred's hot water heater is Dustin's Hail Mary attempt
to melt last season's snow.
[man 2] This is a Cadillac, man, for hot water heaters.
[narrator] If it doesn't wor they could be locked out of Nugget Creek for good.
Well, fellas, this looks too complicated for me.
-You guys gonna set this up? -Yeah.
I gotta get back to my airstrip.
You guys okay with me leaving you with this?
-[Wes and man 2] Yeah. -[Dustin] All right, guys,
get it going, man.
[Wes] I got this nice plastic water hose
and I drilled holes all through it,
so it makes like, a little sprinkler.
[James] There you go! Oh!
[Wes] Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's perfect.
-Is that where you want it? -Yep.
-[Wes] That's pretty far. -[James] That is pretty far.
[Wes] We get warm water going on that,
that's gonna open up a big hole, I think.
[man 2] Let's turn this baby on.
I just wanna make sure we've got water coming out of the...
...this hose, here.
[James] We got water. Lots of it.
Look at that. [laughs]
[Wes] That's [bleep] gonna steam pretty good.
[man 2] We got water pressure.
The question is, is it gonna get enough heat to melt the snow?
[narrator] As the hot water sprinkler system is left to it's work,
at the airstrip,
the pressure is now on Dusti
to open up the much needed supply line
for his operation.
[Dustin] This stuff is awful.
A couple alders aren't a problem.
Hundreds of thousands of alders,
that is the damn problem.
Come on, baby.
Whoo! Feeling crazy.
Oh, ... light came back on.
It didn't like that [bleep].
What was that?
[bleep]
I don't know what these mean.
I know that one's oil. I don't know what that one means.
Dozer doesn't work.
[sighs in frustration]
[narrator] Up ahead...
[Kayla] This is Justin.
I heard you got a lot of mining experience.
After the rock smashed it,
I was stuck there for two hours.
Where we're working right now isn't necessarily our norm.
It's not gonna be our normal dredging that you get introduced to.
All I wanna see is the gold.
[narrator] At Porcupine Cree
after an aborted first dive into the pilings pond...
Hey, guys.
[narrator] ...Kayla adds much needed manpower to the operation.
This is Justin.
-Justin, Paul and Scott. -How you doing, Justin? Paul.
-Hello, Paul. -Nice to meet you.
[narrator] She has called i an experienced mining contac
[Scott] I heard you got a lot of mining experience.
[Justin] Yeah, I've been mining for almost 30 years.
Most of my life,
since my first pan at nine years old.
[narrator] Justin Peterson, a welder from Wasilla, Alask
and a power lifter,
is no stranger to the risks of gold mining.
He lost his finger to a boulder.
After the rock had landed on my finger and smashed it,
I was stuck there for two hours.
It actually damaged these two as well.
And... But they were able to save those two fingers.
And now, only things slip through my pinky.
Let's just look at it real quick and figure it out.
[narrator] The extra set of muscles allows Kayla to change up her mining strateg
ahead of her second dive in the dangerous conditions
This whole location thing, this isn't ideal.
I think we're gonna have to revert to putting the dredge over here.
[Paul] We can almost hang a ladder off that platform.
[Justin] That'd be kind of awesome to have a little
floating island out there with it.
[narrator] On their last div
the crew used the upstream bank to enter the pond,
but disturbed the loose material on the bottom
and got dangerously tangled on the remains of the piling
Kayla's new plan,
move the dredge into the middle of the pond
to gain clear access and div directly down to bedrock gol
[Justin] I'll clear the rocks.
-[Kayla] Can you hold this in place for me? -[Paul] I sure can.
-Let's see if that works. -[Justin] Yeah.
So, hopefully,
today goes a lot smoother.
I would love to say that we're gonna find gold today.
I really hope we do.
[motor switches on]
[Paul] You gotta lower that nozzle all the way down.
[Justin] I'd come over there and help you, but I might tip the boat over.
-I got it. -[Justin laughs]
[Kayla] Okay.
[narrator] This time, Kayla's also prepared for the bad visibility.
[Kayla on radio] Turn my lig on for me?
Thank you.
See you later.
How is your visibility with having that light on?
[Kayla on radio] Um, not that great.
I can't see the rocks but..
Like, I can see the light on my hand, maybe.
But I can't see any rocks.
Copy that.
[Kayla] I'm still, like, feeling my way around to get to the bottom.
There's like, so much [blee] sludge in the bottom of this hole.
One's stuck to my wrists.
[Paul] In this pond, we stir stuff up,
it spreads around everywhere
and then, we're just diving in a cloud of silt.
It's gonna be frustrating for the diver.
Who knew that a pond would create so many problems?
[Kayla on radio] Need a litt section of that sludge cleared off.
I feel like there's a block up.
[Paul] I'll check and see. There is water coming, but it looks low.
[narrator] Dredging blind, Kayla senses a blockage in her hose.
[Kayla on radio] Thank you.
So, Kayla's water flow has slowed down and...
we used the cable to try and snake
to see if we can get the plug up and the hose out.
[bleep]
-[Kayla] Feel something? -[Paul] Yeah.
[Kayla] How deep and down is it?
[Paul] Oh, I see it right there.
[Kayla] Um, you know what?
If we pull the hose over the ladder and drape the nozzle over,
that way it'll fall back out, instead of getting wedged again.
-Gotcha. -That's right. That's right.
[Justin] All right.
[Kayla] Ah, it's a [bleep] stick.
[Paul] That should be it. I think that's it.
With that murky water down there, you cannot see what goes in your nozzle.
So, you end up taking a stick,
it gets wedged, rock wedges against it,
and then you got a plug up.
But being underwater with no visibility,
you can't find where the plug up is in your hose.
So, no visibility is definitely a...
It's gonna slow us down a lot.
[narrator] Despite the challenges of the pilings pond...
[Paul on radio] Did you fin the nozzle?
[Kayla on radio] Yeah, I'm trying to unhook it right now.
[narrator] ...Kayla is straight back to hunting bedrock.
[Kayla] There's a deeper section here.
I exposed that rock bed.
But you could feel, like, there's some ridges in it.
But there's still good sized rocks.
You think you're clearing off bedrock now?
[Kayla] Well, I cleared off the section.
I cleaned off the mid-sectio of the sludge,
at the bottom of that is a bunch of rocks that I went through.
And now, it feels like I mig be cleaning off bedrock.
But, you know, with no visibility, it's hard to see. But...
that's what it feels like.
[Justin] Kayla's getting after it.
She knows how to work. She set the bar high for me being the new guy.
[Scott and Paul laugh]
If you have a bad start to a day, but at the end, there's gold in that pot,
you forget about that bad start for the day.
-Yeah, the problems all are worth it. -Exactly.
[Kayla] I'm hoping to get a good amount of material moved,
and I hope that we can ...
[narrator] Up ahead...
[Fred] Whee-hoo! [laughs]
Yeah!
[bleep] damn, I made it!
All the experience in the past is going to come to bear right now.
Come see! I've got some gold, man!
[James] Hell yeah!
[Fred] Right there. Right there.
-[Wes] Oh, yeah! -[Carlos] Whoo-hoo!
[narrator] At Nugget Creek,
as Fred's hot water sprinkler system attempts
to melt Dustin's ice-covered claim,
1,500 feet down creek,
his dream of constructing an airstrip,
a vital supply line, hangs in the balance.
[Carlos] Does this come off, too? Is there a way to get in here?
[Dustin] If I can't keep this thing running,
my guys will have to look for another job.
We're at a standstill, guys.
Until we get this fixed, this is done.
[Carlos] Is that dirty?
[James] Look how dirty that is on the bottom.
Well, cool.
[Dustin] So, radiator's plugged up.
[narrator] 30 years of dirt on the radiator fins
has caused the dozer to overheat.
That could be the problem.
[Dustin] Hopefully, that is what's killing us right now.
So, we're gonna pressure wash these fins off.
We've been working this thing pretty hard.
I've been on it almost everyday.
[sighs heavily] Without this dozer, we're in trouble.
-[Fred] Holy, [bleep]. Look at that [bleep]. -[James] ...all that grit.
That'll make it heat up, dude.
I hope this works.
I'm starting to see through it.
-You see the difference? -[James] Nice.
-[Carlos] I see the difference, dude. -Yeah.
-I thought that was normal. -[Carlos] Holy smokes.
-[James] Do you see where it stopped? -[Dustin] Yeah.
Thank that's it, man. What do you think?
[Carlos] Dude, you can see right through it, man. It's tissue paper now.
[Dustin] You guys wanna see if this thing runs?
-[James] Yeah. -[Carlos] Yeah.
All right. Power on.
Come on, baby.
[engine starts]
[revs]
[all laugh]
[Dustin] Guarantee it wouldn't be blowing bubbles.
[Fred laughs]
[Dustin] Hey, the oil light went out.
[James] Awesome.
[Dustin] I think that's gonna do it.
There's only one real way to find out, I gotta go work it hard.
Holy, [bleep]. I thought this [bleep] was gone.
Wow.
It hasn't overheated yet.
Think our little pressure washer trick worked.
The radiator was stopped up and now it's not.
Bubbles, the Dozer,
it might be a little crazy,
you might've sucked up a little too much exhaust fumes.
I'm pretty sure I heard Bubbles say, "I love you, Dustin."
[narrator] Bubbles, the Doze and her spring cleaned radiator limp on
in an attempt to salvage a season
that is slowly slipping away
[Dustin] Whoo!
Ah, [bleep].
We got 'em done!
No more trees in the way.
[exhales] I can't believe this dozer did that.
That, right there, is the la of the vegetation.
All I have is dirt work left.
This should be no problem after this.
[Justin] She's on the bottom, man.
[Paul] Yeah. Yeah.
[Kayla on radio] There's mor material down here than I thought.
[narrator] Back across the mountain,
at Mark Seben's Porcupine claim...
Lot of material.
[narrator] Kayla's three hou into her zero-vis dive,
dredging on bedrock.
Both crews are banking on the piling's pond deliverin fast gold
to keep Dustin's operation afloat.
[Paul on radio] I was kind of curious if Mark sai he just barely touched bedro
and he was getting gold out of what he was running,
that means, he left a lot of good material down there.
[Kayla on radio] Feels like I don't have good suction.
[Paul on radio] All right. I'll try running a snake down it real quick.
-[suctioning air] -[Kayla] Oh, now it feels better.
-[Paul] You got it. [laugh] -[Kayla] Whatever it was,
it must've come loose.
No, there was a big rock that was stuck on this and We got it out.
[Kayla] Gotcha. Thank you.
[Paul] Yeah, so every time we encounter those green rocks,
we usually find gold.
[Justin] That's one of the most common signs of serpentine or
the dense, green stones, the heavy, green ones.
[Paul] Yeah.
It's always been a good thing for me on my gold encounters.
I take it as a good sign.
And the history of this place right here,
all the old timers, when the hit bedrock,
that's when they hit the paystreak.
-That's when they did jazz hands? -[Paul] Yeah.
So, I kind of expect to see some gold in the box
if she's actually cleaning up bedrock.
It might be... a good dive.
[Kayla on radio] I feel lik a dog chasing its own tail.
I can't see [bleep] down h
I'm coming up.
[narrator] After four hours diving blind,
Kayla calls time.
[Kayla] Grab my, this hand, right here.
Pull me up.
[narrator] Now, she's eager to see if the risk will earn a reward.
[Kayla] I'm not seeing anything.
-[Justin] Nothing obvious. -[Paul] No.
That sucks.
[Kayla] Struggling, all for nothing.
[Paul] I'm ready to go back to the creek.
[Kayla] If we're completely wasting our time,
I'm not gonna spend much more time in this hole.
I think it's just, like, a death trap.
I'm gonna call it.
-It has been a rough week. -[Wes] Yeah, it has.
I got so much done on that dozer.
-What's that? -[Wes] Ooh, that's the fast one.
[narrator] At Nugget Creek, Dustin's new airstrip
is open for business.
[Wes] Hope he lands right.
[Dustin] Holy [bleep]!
Of course he did.
I think that's what Fred's coming in.
Wonder what he'd think about Nugget Creek.
-Yee-hoo! [laughs] -That's a grand entrance you made there.
[bleep] damn, I made it!
It's been 17 years since I've been up this canyon.
-Yeah? What'd you think? -[Fred] Beautiful.
Beautiful.
[narrator] Dustin's father, Dakota Fred,
could not have come at a better time.
All right.
-Hey, fellas! -How's it going, Fred?
[Fred] How y'all doing?
-[bleep] damn, Carlos. -Nice to see you, man.
--..., Fred. -Yeah. Yeah.
Whoa!
Well, welcome to camp, Fred.
-[Fred] Well, good. -This is our new life for now.
What do you think about our new site, Nugget Creek, here?
Well, one of the most beautiful spots on the world.
[Dustin] Problem what we're dealing with right now is, there is
lots of ice and snow right now,
tons of it.
But we're trying that heater that you sent up,
and everything we can to melt snow.
This has been the hardest to get to place we've ever been, I think.
-It's dangerous. -[Fred] I can imagine.
Up here, it's white water. A lot of white water, man.
-Wow. -It's way different.
Tell you what...
[clicks tongue] ...all the experience in the past
is gonna come to bear right now.
Oh, Lord.
I'm stoked to get out there and take a look at that thing
and give it a critical eyeball.
-Yeah. -And see if I got any ideas.
Let's go find out what we gotta do.
-All right. -[grunts]
[Fred] Dustin bit off more than he could chew?
I don't think so.
But we're gonna have to do a lot of figuring to figure out
how to make this doable.
I'm gonna try to give him just as much advice,
even if it irritates the [bleep] out of him.
[narrator] The first 500 yar to the creek
are quickly covered in an AT
[Fred] There's no snow here
I don't see a damn piece of snow anywhere.
There's a ton of snow up there.
I mean, 20 plus feet.
So, there's a hike that goes up and over.
If you want, we could put you in weights and walk you straight up the creek.
There's some ropes for you.
-I... I decline that. -[Dustin] Okay.
-[laughs] -[Dustin] Well...
This goes up 500 feet, straight up and down.
-[Fred] Where's the elevator? -Yeah.
[Dustin] Let's see what you think?
-Be careful, Fred. -I'll go up last.
[Dustin] No, I need to be...
-If you fail, I need to be there. So... -[Fred] Uh...
You guys head up and we'll catch up to you.
-[Carlos] All right. -[Fred] All right, I'll just follow you guys up.
[Fred panting]
[narrator] 78-years old Fre starts a 500-foot climb.
[Dustin] Been hiking much, Fred?
[Fred] Nope. [laughs]
Unfortunately.
[pants]
[Dustin] Man, if you don't come hang out with me more, you're gonna get old.
[Fred] Bull [bleep]. [laughs]
[panting]
-[Fred] Give me two. -[Dustin] Yeah, take your time, man.
-[Fred] Holy cow. -[Dustin] That's beautiful, man.
Wow.
-Intimidating. -Oh, man.
-[laughs] -[Dustin] Look, we got here,
and I gotta tell you, I've been in over my head the entire time.
[Fred] You couldn't have picked any easier place to go?
[narrator] Fred's hot water sprinkler has been running across the clock.
[Dustin] I hope that that heater that you sent up worked for us to melt snow.
[narrator] If the ice hasn't melted,
Dustin's season will be ove
before it's even begun.
[Dustin] Check it out.
-[narrator] Dustin and his crew... -[Dustin] Check it out.
[narrator] ...are about to find out if Fred's plan to melt the ice has worked.
Holy [bleep], y'all did it!
It worked.
[Wes] All the snow has melted.
[cheering and laughing]
-[Dustin] So, Fred. -[Fred] Yeah?
The ice was out to here, when we got here.
-[Fred] Wow. -[Dustin] This is where the ice was,
right here, Fred, look.
And it was ten to 12 to 20 feet thick in places.
Yep, huge!
-It was all the way across here, Fred. -Right here.
[Fred] Holy [bleep].
Whoo-hoo-hoo! It's going!
It's go-time.
Good job, guys. I didn't know what we did here, but we're here.
[James] Yeah. [bleep] Yeah!
-Dude. -[Dustin] Good job, dude.
-Look a that [bleep] boulder. -[Dustin] I see it.
Just seeing that boulder by itself
makes me think of how much gold's underneath it.
[James] It's stuck in the gates, is what I call that.
It's stuck right in between these two gates.
-[Carlos] Yeah. -[Dustin] Look at this.
-[Wes] Golden Gates. Golden Gates. -Golden Gates.
-[Carlos] Golden Gates. -We call it the Golden Gates.
-Look at that. -[James] Our new dig site is the Golden Gates, boys.
This is where we're gonna be for the season, guys.
This is it, right here.
Hey, let's go panning.
Okay. Do what you do.
[narrator] Fred's immediatel on a mission
to see if the newly christen Golden Gate
lives up to its name.
[Fred] Let's see what y'all got in here. Anything?
The fellows brought up a bunch of dirt.
Maybe they think there's a little bit of gold in it.
I think we go ahead and find out if there is.
[Carlos] Pan full of paydirt for you.
There you go, Fred.
Thank you.
Hey! Hey, Dustin!
-Hey! -[Carlos] Oh! Look at that.
-[Carlos laughs] -[James] No way!
Ya got some gold, man!
Right there. Right there.
-That's chunky gold. -[Fred] Wow!
This ain't nothing like the stuff at Porcupine.
I see five.
Five entire pieces.
[Dustin] Holy cow.
[Dustin] That's good gold, dog!
This is means for celebration right here.
So far, this is my best day here.
I finally have hope.
-[Carlos] Go, let it! Hell yeah! -[Dustin] Wow!
[Fred] I think you're in for a bonanza.
I'm telling you.
This is exciting, Fred.
[Carlos] A test pan coming u with that much color,
in this?
Holy moly.
Everybody needs to switch gears
to get in that damn dredge in the water right here behind Fred.
Let's move some rocks.
-Let's dig some holes, let's find some gold, man. -[Carlos] Yep.
[Dustin] Today is an amazing day for me.
I was getting worried that we were gonna run out of cash.
We're gonna find gold.
Real soon.
This is exciting.
I have no doubt that there is a bunch of gold here.
I think it's a crew that could do it.
[narrator] Next time on Gold Rush White Water...
This is what White Water's all about.
My wife would kill me.
-Three, two, one! -[explodes]
-Watch out! -Whoa! Whoa!
[Justin] Get ready to jack.
[jackhammer hammering]
[Paul] Dump it out. Just dump it out.
It's hell to know stuff
and not be able to pass it on to people.
Once we get around this grass, there's land right here.
[Justin] It takes crazy to find the gold.
I'm just a little bit crazy.
Whoa, snap.
[Dustin] We gotta get to digging.
-Let's get a diver in the water, man. -[grunts]
They're gonna be dredging up gold. I'm kind of betting on it.
- This material feels great. -[Wes] That is a good find.
-[Paul] It's been a long dry spell but... -Somebody had to break it.