Bear. Bear. Bear.
What ya doin', buddy?
Oh, you don't wanna play.
Bears these days, just don't wanna play anymore.
Goin' up to do a surprise check-up on Kayla's crew
at Mark Siethen's place.
Got a lot on my plate.
Got more to do than I have time.
[narrator] In remote Southeast Alaska,
Dustin Hurt has spent every last cent of his savings
on his new claim at Nugget Creek
and is counting on Kayla's crew at Porcupine Creek
to help bankroll the entire operation.
How's it goin'?
Pretty good. We're starting to get all the little quirks worked out.
-That is some dirty water you got there. -It's awful.
[Dustin] So, thought y'all were gonna kick the tailings over the road.
I mean, the water's gonna be that color regardless.
[Dustin] Well, that's-- Look at the difference.
[narrator] Paul Richardson i three hours into his dive
and dredging blind.
Mind if I talk to him for a sec?
Yeah.
Hey, Paul. How ya doin', man?
[Paul on comms] Not good.
-So what's the diggin' like? -Can't see [bleep].
Yeah, I'm about ready to call my dive.
[Paul groans]
[Kayla] Here's one piece right there.
It's not-- It's just a flake.
Like 10 cents worth of gold,
if that.
[Paul] That's a lot of [bleep] work for nothin'.
That really [bleep] sucks.
[Dustin] I might be changing some things up here
Might piss a lot of people off. It's okay.
I'm okay with pissing people off.
I don't like the way things are being done.
I got some different ideas.
It's just a [bleep] show.
Kayla and Justin, I'ma need you guys to come up with me to camp
and scout out your new place.
We need to know where y'all are diggin'.
Scott and Paul,
you're gonna stay here and dredge.
It's a lot of damn work, man.
I think we need somebody with experience.
You're not gonna like what he has to say about anything,
but I would like Fred to be here.
What the hell y'all got goin' here?
Three, two, one!
-[explosion] -Watch out!
You almost died.
[Dustin] Nobody fall over the edge.
[grunting]
I only have two rules. Don't get hurt.
[man] And don't die.
[grunts] Holy moly!
My wife would kill me.
-Is that... -[bleep] yeah, dude!
[Kayla] The fact that every pan had a little bit of gold in it
was a really good sign.
-There you go, Scott. -Whoo!
[Fred] That's nice.
Bring as much as you can, 'cause we're gonna need at least two jugs.
If you flip it over, it'll carry real easy, I think.
[narrator] Nine miles up the Tsirku River,
deep in the Alaskan wilderness,
mine boss Dustin Hurt is a month into the mining seas
on his new Nugget Creek clai
[Dustin] It's just costing a lot of money, 'cause we're way out here.
So we need to get in the water and we need to find some gold.
That has to happen.
We're gonna go up there. I need to make a parking spot for the dredge.
That's my goal today.
I need us in the water, or this is costing too much.
And we need to start getting gold in the pocket.
That's all there is to it. It has to pay for itself.
[narrator] Last week, with a little help from mining legend, Fred Hurt,
Dustin finally punched through the ice barrier,
blocking the path to his Golden Gates dive site.
[Fred] Hey! Holy crap.
You've got some gold, man!
[narrator] Now, with his ne dive site free of ice,
Dustin is about to double down.
Go look for your new site.
I would suggest bringing a rope.
Wear some harnesses.
Not that you don't know what you're doing, but slips happen.
We all slip.
-All right, everybody know what to do? All right. -[man] Yup.
-[man 2] It's time to hit it. -Let's get to it.
[narrator] 500 feet up-creek is the sta of Dustin's claims.
And it's here that Fred found their first gold,
dubbing the area "the Golden Gates."
[man] I'm excited about this area.
Look at those boulders.
There's gonna be a line of gold right through here
because this has not been touched. Any of this.
[narrator] The virgin groun looks promising.
But it will take a diver in the water
to see how much gold lies beneath.
[Dustin] You wanna put the dredge right here?
We haven't decided yet.
Now, this seems like a lot of extra work,
but I wanted to make a dam.
All the way across and make that water level match.
It'll slow that water down where we're at.
With that boulder out of the way,
it'll give me a parking spot
so I can put the damn dredge in,
back in a boat
about three or four feet behind this big rock.
That big rock gone,
that would be my perfect world right there.
That would be an awesome world right there.
[narrator] To get the dredg in the water,
Dustin must first move monster boulders downstream
to create a dam.
This will raise the water level and slow the raging current,
creating a perfect spot to float the dredge
and dive for what Dustin believes is an untouched deposit of gold.
[Dustin] All right, guys. Let's pop some rocks.
Let's get this dam up. I need this dredge in the water.
We got to get to diggin'.
Let's get a diver in the water, man.
[man] Let's go.
[grunting]
[Kayla] So this gives you an idea of what we're dealing with with the water.
This creek drops, I think, 900 feet per mile.
So it's gonna be fast water.
No kidding.
Kayla, there's a really hard hike going all the way up-creek.
You guys got your work cut out for you.
I've only seen ice and snow as far as I've been up, so.
[Kayla] We need to get an aerial view
so we can find somewhere that's more exposed, less snow.
[Dustin] What I was thinking for you
was to continue right here.
[Kayla] That's what we were looking at.
[Dustin] That's a marathon right there. That's not a sprint.
[Kayla] Let's go!
[narrator] On the hunt for a dive site,
Kayla and Justin are forced to blaze their own trail
up the sheer cliffs
and into the untamed wilderness.
Wait up for me, speedy.
-[Kayla] Hurry up. -I'm hurrying.
-[Kayla] Don't die. -I won't.
[Kayla] I can put a little extra weight in mine if needed.
[Justin] The weight I need to lose, you can't take.
-[Kayla] Nope. -[laughs]
[Justin] I got some bear doo-doo.
[Kayla] Yeah. I don't have a gun either.
[Kayla] If we get up to a ledge that opens up to where we can walk along it,
we might be able to walk upstream to get a better view.
[Justin] So hopefully not too far.
[Kayla] Hopefully.
[narrator] Nine miles north
79-year-old mining legend, Fred Hurt,
returns to Porcupine Creek,
the same creek where he and Dusting first started their adventure.
[Fred] 19 years of memories.
Good old Porcupine Creek mine.
[narrator] Over a decade ago...
[Fred] We know there's gold sitting under our feet.
...Fred gambled on the legen of the glory hole
and chased an ancient waterfall over 100 feet deep
[Fred] The material is just too hard.
This thing doesn't have enough power to continue.
[narrator] They never reache the bedrock bottom...
Declaring it right now abandoned.
...but still got to their biggest payday.
[all cheering]
[Fred] We took about three quarters of
a million dollars' worth of gold out of this hole.
Did I have fun doin' it?
Hell yes, I did.
[narrator] Now he's heading a mile up Porcupine Creek
to take over the dredging operation at Mark Siethen's claim.
[Fred] There does seem to be a considerable amount of problems.
I probably have a little more irritating way of dealing with it than Dustin.
As I'm getting a little older,
I'm trying to be a little more tactful.
Just a little.
-[man] How's it going, Fred? -Hey hey!
Hey, Fred. How ya doing, man?
Good to see you, buddy.
Welcome back out to Porcupine.
-Hot damn! -How ya been doin'?
They just sucking down diesel.
[man] Oh, yeah.
[narrator] On this spot a century ago,
the early minors built a huge wooden flume
to divert Porcupine Creek
and mine the riverbed for millions of dollars of gold
Mark believes the remains of the pilings that supported the flume
prove that the ground by the side of the creek was never mined,
leaving behind a treasure trove of gold.
[Fred] But, boy, y'all do have a nasty mess here.
Well, we got a cesspool.
[Fred laughs]
Oh, Lord!
It's so murky that we can't see anything,
so we can't really make good progress.
We end up spending more time taking our plug-ups out.
The way they have it set up now
is just an impossible situation.
They're dumping dirty water into the water they're diving in.
Duh.
[Paul] It'll settle down if we let it alone for a couple of days.
It'll settle down and we'll have some clarity.
But as soon as we fire the dredge up,
poof, it's all back to this again.
I would put two of 'em.
Make two ponds out of one.
-Two ponds? -I would.
[Paul] I'd rather spend the half a day,
divide the pond in two parts
so we can see what we're doin'.
[Fred] We're gonna split this and make two ponds out of this.
And then we're gonna go ahead and put the dredge in the secondary pond.
That will clarify the water
and it should be okay.
[narrator] Fred's plan,
build a berm to divide the pond in two,
placing the dredge between the two ponds
so all the dirty water from the sluice goes straight into the lower pond
keeping the dive pond clear
for the crew to dredge for gold.
Paul and Scott indicated it was just gonna take 'em a half a day
to build that peninsula all the way across that pond.
Ain't gonna happen.
It'll be a day, day and a half,
maybe two days, especially the way they're doin' it.
Hey! Put your dirt on top of dirt.
Like right here...
-Okay. -...and then just ease it, then dump it.
Don't ever dump dirt in the water.
Copy that.
[Fred] Water is like kryptonite
if you drop dirt through it
Just dispenses it.
You lose 80% of the buoyancy of your dirt.
I could get on that thing,
and get that thing out ther 15 feet in about an hour.
It's hell to know stuff
and not be able to pass it on to people.
What the hell y'all got goin' here?
You want me to get that thing started for you
so you can get your ass moving?
If you wanna show me like exactly what you're talking about.
-'Cause I think I got an idea but if I can-- -I'll go out there 20 minutes.
-Cool. Go for it, man. -All right.
I kinda bowed to the experience that Fred has.
He's got a ton of time on excavators.
[narrator] With nearly a quarter of a century in the construction business
there is nothing Fred doesn' know about moving dirt.
[Fred] Come on, let's go.
Now in the hotseat,
the berm build shifts into overdrive.
[Fred] You gotta teach these young bucks everything.
[narrator] Up ahead...
[Justin] Ready for some noise?
Nobody fall over the edge.
Man, holy moly.
This is what white water's all about, folks.
Man, if that'd go on top of those, that'd be good.
This is gonna go down there.
We're gonna use it for a dam.
Come on, you [bleep]!
Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's a busy, busy day, amigo.
Busy, busy day.
[narrator] At the Golden Gates,
Dustin's crew battle some of the most challenging conditions
they've ever faced.
[Dustin] That's it!
[narrator] The goal, to hav their dredge in the water by week's end.
But first, they must build i a safe harbor.
[Carlos] We are way behind schedule.
Ideally we would've been in the water already,
had a couple of ounces to show for it
and it's just taking us forever.
[man] Three, two, one!
[all cheering]
[Kayla] You hear that?
They just popped a rock.
[narrator] High on the ridgeline overhead,
Kayla and Justin bushwack deep into bear country
in a desperate search for a second dive site.
We've got enough elevation gain right here.
If we start kind of traversing across,
maybe to find an edge instead of keep going up,
we might be able to get a good view.
We really need to find somewhere where the snow has melted.
I'm just trying to get a little foot-grab.
That way, we at least have good traction.
[Justin] And avoid sliding down to who knows what would stop us.
I don't like how it looks down there.
We've made it higher up the mountain.
Try to get a view, vantage,
So we can determine where we might have a good spot
to start mining,
and we're still bushwhacking.
[narrator] After a grueling 4-hour climb,
they have yet to find what they're looking for.
[Justin] It's definitely not easy.
I thought I'd do a little better, personally, at this than I have been,
but it's, uh... it's exhausting.
[narrator] For new recruit, Justin Peterson,
the harsh trail is a long way from his old job
From being a regular worker at a weld shop to...
-trekking in the-- -[Kayla] Mountain goat.
[laughs] To a mountain goat and following Kayla,
this is something else.
-What have you gotten yourself into? -I know!
It just keeps getting thicker and thicker as we go.
[Kayla] Let's go up and through all this [bleep].
Like, I think there's a cliff edge right over here,
but it's so overgrown,
I don't know if we're even gonna be able to see from this side.
With all this plant debris and duff, it's real slick.
There's really no good footing right here.
I wouldn't recommend following me right here.
I'm gonna climb up here for just a second
to see if maybe there's an opening where we can see something.
There's no point in both of us climbing up here right now
if it doesn't open up.
-So I'll be back in a minute. -All right.
[Justin] Careful.
[Kayla] It's so [bleep] overgrown,
it's just so hard to tell where to go.
I can't tell where the ledge is.
Can you see anything yet?
[Kayla] Heck yeah.
I see two good sections without snow.
-[Justin] That is excellent. -Yeah, that water's open.
[narrator] Running east to west,
this stretch of creek is exposed to twice as much sunlight.
This open water could be their only chance
to mine the creek this seaso
[Kayla] It looks like there's a good-sized stretch of creek here
that's way more exposed so it has no snow.
Just knowing that it's not covered in snow all the way up
is a huge accomplishment.
If we cannot have to spend that extra time messing with the snow as much,
that would save us a lot of work.
[Justin] It's been quite the day of a hike but it was totally worth it.
If we can bypass that patch of snow above the other crew's site,
we could start sampling and then find a spot to put our dredge.
I say we go back down
and then start figuring out where we're gonna cut a trail.
[Fred] Come on, let's go!
[narrator] On the other sid of the mountain at Porcupine Creek,
in need of an injection of cash,
Dustin has turned to his father, Fred, for help.
Pretty soon I'm gonna have my bucket into the wall, aren't I?
Just shove your bucket down.
Don't dump. Don't dump.
Hey!
Don't dump.
Just put it level
and push right on out there.
There you go.
[Paul] I know you know how to build a road.
Pretty soon, they'll have it cut off.
They'll be doing all their activity out into this pond here.
This other pond over here will be their discharge pond.
We'll see how quick he can get this peninsula finished here.
Flatten your bucket out a little bit there.
All right, back drag. Right there.
Whoo!
Look at that, huh?
-Oh, yeah. -Almost like we know what we're doing.
[Scott] [bleep] yeah.
-What a day. -Whoo. That's what I mean.
What a day.
After nine, ten hours,
you start feeling a little bit on the rough side.
-[Paul] I think we're in great shape. -Yeah.
-Good job, guys. -I'm excited about tomorrow.
Me too.
There's a pretty good chance that Scott and Paul,
they're gonna be dredging up gold tomorrow.
We may need to go over there and fish for that other drill.
[narrator] After finding the only section of open water up-creek,
Kayla and Justin's job has just begun.
[Kayla] Today's main goal is to get a trail started to our site.
I have an idea of the area that we're gonna go scout out.
Either way, we need to get a trail established
to get around that cliff wall that is blocking us right now.
[narrator] Dustin has just the trail-busting tool for the mammoth task.
We got ourself a really awesome jackhammer.
We got the biggest widest paddles I could get on it.
[Justin] I've used jackhammers plenty of times before
at different construction jobs I've had in the past.
But I've never quite used 'em on a...
bedrock wall over a creek, trying to make a trail. So...
this'll be something really new for me.
[sighs]
[Kayla] And we're off.
[Justin] All right. Get ready to jack!
[panting]
Definitely a top-heavy load.
[Kayla] It's not gonna be easy, but...
hopefully it kind of flattens out a little bit once we get farther up.
It's just really hard to tell past that corner.
If we can at least just get to that point,
and then figure out where to go from there, that would be great.
So, let's get at it.
[Justin] All right. Ready for some noise?
This rock's a little more solid under the top stuff.
-Oh, really? -Yeah.
I'll try and get to this edge a little more.
I was hoping I'd pop the whole line and fracture it down, but.
[narrator] As Justin cuts a path with a jackhammer
that delivers nearly 900 impacts per minute,
Kayla must find rocks stron enough to risk her life on.
[Kayla] The rock that we're dealing with here is shale
and shale's really crumbly.
So it's hard to set anchors in
because they don't secure very well.
The rock shatters. There's a lot of cracks in it.
And there can be cracks behind that you don't even see.
Sometimes when you're hammering the anchor in,
the rock just shatters.
So it's kind of [bleep] rock to be putting anchors in.
[Justin] Cutting a path on this kind of grade and stuff
it's a new experience. It's a bit crazy.
But...
if you can do what others didn't do, you're gonna get the gold.
That's... it takes...
It takes crazy to find the gold.
[narrator] 700 feet down-creek, to get his dredge in the water,
Dustin hauls in some heavy equipment.
[Dustin] So we're gonna go, uh, set up some winches.
Wes is gonna be on winches.
We're gonna be in charge of carrying them up there
and bringing all this stuff up for 'em,
'cause this is some heavy junk.
It's not gonna be fun.
If you don't mention how heavy it is, then I can't feel it.
So don't remind me, man, about how heavy it is.
[grunts] This is heavy.
These are real heavy.
[narrator] To complete the dam,
they need the 132-pound winches
to drag the creeks boulders into place.
[Dustin] Nobody fall over the edge.
[grunts]
[Dustin] Whoa! [bleep]
Need a break.
I've been trying to set up camp.
I have not been lifting winches up mountains.
But if we don't get any gold,
we won't make the end of damn season.
[sighing]
We're doing this.
[exhaling]
Yeah! [laughing]
Holy crap!
Whoo-hoo!
Ha, pressure marks.
Look at that.
[Wes] So right now we're trying to set up our re-direct on the other side.
[narrator] To create a dam,
Wes's plan is to install a pair of winches
on the near side of the creek
and a re-direct on the far bank
which will allow them to maneuver the lift pulley
up and down the creek.
[Wes] Looking good.
We're gonna use this pulley
to re-direct this line to grab any rock
anywhere up this creek.
Anywhere, anywhere.
[narrator] But before they can start dragging rocks
Carlos has the dangerous tas of crossing the raging river
[Carlos] I don't know how to get a re-direct on that side
without getting hurt, washed away or killed.
That's the fastest part of this creek right now
and that's going millions and millions of gallons in freakin' seconds.
And it's freakin' deep.
[Dustin] This water's next level fast, dude.
Yeah, no, I agree. It's, uh, that's rough.
Rough [bleep].
[Carlos] If I can get out to this main rock right here.
Set up a temporary anchor point.
[Dustin] Yeah, dude, it sounds like a great plan.
[Carlos] Argh!
Holy moly!
I'm doing this again, man, holy moly.
Argh!
I've got it.
[Wes] Made it.
Good, good.
Perfect.
My wife would kill me.
Argh.
Oh, my, argh.
Kids, stay in school otherwise you'll be doing this.
[Carlos] Woo-hoo!
Hoo.
This is crazy. Wow.
This is what white water's all about, folks.
Everything's so cold.
All the sake of gold.
[narrator] First safety line secured,
Carlos can now brave the white water further down the creek
to bring the new winch system online.
[Carlos] How the hell am I gonna get out of here?
He's going swimming, it's not even break time.
[Carlos] I need that back.
Yeah, there you go.
Carlos is working right now to put us a re-direct on the other side.
It'll just give us the ability to, uh, direct our rocks
and put 'em where we want.
[Carlos] Looking good. Let's do it.
[Wes] You gonna be dumb you gotta be tough.
Good job, man.
-Coming up. -Ah, you're not getting over there.
Little, hey, one at a time.
How you do what you do, man, I don't know.
[Carlos] No problem, man, we're good, we're good.
Woo-hoo! Yeah.
[Dustin] Rock water, man.
Dude, I am such a badass, bro, [bleep].
[Dustin] Couldn't get that to stick.
[narrator] Finally, with the heavy use winches installed,
the miners can get to work.
[Carlos laughing] Yeah!
[Dustin] Oh, yeah, now we're moving.
[Wes] We're so close to getting the dredge in.
I think this is gonna work to our advantage,
that's what I got going right now.
[narrator] Up ahead...
[Fred] Fire it up.
This water is nasty and we can't see.
[Kayla] Last thing I wanna do is bust through the ice.
Three, two, one!
[explosion]
-[Carlos] Whoa. -You almost died.
[narrator] At Porcupine Creek...
[Paul] Time to get dressed.
Let's see what that water looks like.
[narrator] ...it's time to p Fred's master plan
to increase visibility to the test.
Ideally they would let this front pond settle just a little bit more
but they need to get in there and find out... Get some gold.
Fire it up.
[engine starting]
Come on, baby.
[narrator] Dustin is bankin on the Pilings Pond
delivering some fast gold
to fund his Nugget Creek operation.
The possibility that there's just a pocket of gold down there
that's untouched, I mean...
I won't let that haunt me, I gotta find out.
All right, there we go.
-[Scott] You copy? -Got you.
Yeah, loud and clear.
Loud and clear.
Good luck down there, Scott.
[Scott] Good luck.
[narrator] So far, the crew is yet to dredge
a single ounce of gold from the pond.
How's all your systems working down there, Scott?
[Scott] All pretty good so far.
Water's good, air's good.
Good water, good air?
[Scott] Good water, good air.
[Fred] How's the visibility down there?
[Scott] I got about two inches.
Well it's better than, uh, last time
when you said you couldn't even see your fingers in front of your mask.
So, uh, hell, you got visibility now.
We'll call it, you got visibility down there now.
[laughing]
[Scott] I'm zero to somethin
Just remember the old, uh, woman and making love to her at night.
[Scott] You're just kind of feeling your way around.
[chuckling]
[Scott] I'm bring something to get it out of the way.
[bleep]
He pulled a piece of board out
that's got a big, old metal spike sticking out of it.
Just sounds like...
Wow.
[Scott] Running in to that.
[Fred] Damn.
[Scott] That's a homemade nail.
[Paul] It can be deadly.
[Scott] Material is changing not, uh, the sludgy stuff.
[Fred] Yep.
[Scott] It feels a lot more like that glacial fill
[Paul] Huh, I'd be rising those off the bedrock, man.
[Fred] Scott is down there trying to, uh, find the very bottom
of, uh, where that bedrock kind of flattens out down there.
That's where the, uh, gold always is in, uh, Porcupine.
[Scott] This material feels great.
Hey, that's a good sign. That is a good sign.
[Scott] I got a 12-foot area cleared.
Uh-oh, we got a little problem here.
[narrator] The landlocked dive site presents a new problem.
[Fred] Uh, we got dirty water
but it's circulating back up here.
It's three inches higher in the back
that it is at the front.
In 15 minutes, that'll all be right over the top of Scott.
We gotta drain that water out of there, I can guarantee.
All right, Scott?
You're in some good hands with Paul.
[Paul] Fred's gonna go grab the excavator.
Dig us a trench see if we can get this water
to flow up and hopefully that changes our flow.
This water's nasty and you can't see.
[narrator] If Fred's new pla to clear the backed up tailings doesn't work,
the crew can forget any chance
of their much needed pay day.
[Fred] Uh, about one more dig and we ready to, uh...
...dump some water.
There she goes!
[laughing]
He's flying out of here now.
That should clear that pond up in the front.
[Paul] Good job, man.
All right, that's just about done it.
We got enough of a, we got a good flow coming out of the dirty water pond
into the, uh, creek.
[Scott] Now, visibility is a lot better than what it has been,
so, I'll take it.
Looks really good.
[Paul] Hey, Scott, I think you set the record here for, uh,
the longest session without no plug ups.
[Scott indistinct]
[narrator] On the other side of the mountain
Kayla and Justin are six hours into their missio
to reach their potential new dive site.
But they still have another 300-feet to go.
Hand cutting a trail, it's definitely challenging.
It seems like it goes so slow,
there's so much that needs to be done.
It makes it feel like you're not really getting any progress done
and it's just an endless chore, but...
...slowly but surely we'll get it done.
Hey.
What's going on?
How do you like our highway?
[Dustin] I could drive my four wheeler up here.
All right, wait, wait, wait.
This is way too much work for you to do this.
I need to know if there's gold up there.
So what I would do,
I would go and put, like...
They call it a P-line.
And it's just basically, an exploration trail.
And then you find out if it's possible,
it's worth putting in that effort.
Makes sense if you just go across the wall trying to get it,
you hit a dead end, you've wasted all that time
when you could've discovered it with a little bit less
and figured another route.
You cut only enough.
Just enough to where it's not a lot of effort
and you're moving fast.
[Kayla] I'm gonna check this rock right here
figure out where to put my first anchor bolt.
It's all crumbly.
Let's see.
That's not the greatest.
[narrator] Using Justin's P-line strategy,
Kayla makes rapid progress across the cliff.
Can you see anything yet?
Once we get around this crest,
there's land right here.
Problem is, I just don't see any good rock for an anchor bolt.
Unless I do it, like, right here.
But this isn't that great a rock either.
[narrator] One failed bolt
and it's a 20-foot drop to the creek below.
[Kayla] Last thing I wanna do is bust through the ice.
I don't like it but I'm gonna go for it.
[narrator] In Alaska, you always have to keep your head on a swivel.
[Carlos] There it goes!
[narrator] Because you neve know what may fall out of the sky.
Woo-hoo! All right.
Literally, literally dropped us a package.
Literally one of the hoses that we need for the dredge.
This looks...
...perfect.
[narrator] On Nugget Creek,
Kayla and Justin are within inches
of what could be their dive site for the season.
So the good news is, once we get around this crest
there's land right here.
[Justin] Oh, my goodness, I can hear the water around the corner.
-Right there. -Right there.
[Kayla] All cleared.
What I did was put my butt against the snow
and, like, shimmy my feet across.
All right.
-We got a lot of land to work with over here. -[Justin] Definitely.
[Kayla] You see what I see?
[Justin] Look at those banks over there.
That's quite the sweep.
[Kayla] I like this spot.
What do you think? You like it?
Yeah.
[Kayla] You can tell, like, the way the bedrock comes out right there
that it pushed everything.
-So this was where everything was pushed to. -[Justin] Yeah.
-Same with that... -Same with that.
-...on that side. -'Cause it hits rim,
comes this way.
Smashes over there.
-This way. -Here and backs up.
You can tell material's built up here.
[narrator] Free of ice and snow,
this section of creek is Kayla's only hope for a successful season.
Now it's time to do some sampling.
It's a lot more exciting because now we know
we have potential to find some gold.
So obviously when we're panning
we're looking for gold, if it's obvious,
but we're looking for the black sands,
pyrites, other heavy minerals
that would give us an idea of the gold being here.
Gold tends to be the deepest one of them all.
[Kayla] I got gold already.
[Justin laughing]
Bingo.
[Kayla] Usually with water this fast
most of it settles all the way down to the bottom.
So that fact that every pan at least had a little bit
was a really good sign.
So the next step is to get Paul and Scott back with us
and start dredging.
I need a parking spot right here for this dredge.
These rocks are in my way
and I need those rocks right there.
[narrator] Down creek at the golden gates...
[Dustin] Bottle up.
[narrator] ...in a desperat attempt to get his dredge in the water...
Hell yeah! Nice job.
[narrator] ...Dustin pushes his winch system to the brink.
[Carlos] We need to get rid of that big rock too right there.
That's the asteroid rock
and we're gonna send it back to outer space.
To make this dam, it's ideal to use big rocks like this
but, God, if we can't move 'em,
we have to make smaller rocks, more manageable.
We're ready for power heads.
[narrator] The huge asteroid rock is too large for the winches.
so they'll need to blow it to pieces.
[Dustin] Come on out of there.
Hey, and...
[explosion]
[all] Argh!
Come on, [bleep].
There's our nemesis right now. Need it out of the way.
Three, two, one.
[explosion]
[Carlos] That didn't do anything, dude.
Try that again.
Has to move because it's in my damn way.
[Dustin] Ready!
[explosion]
[narrator] But blast after blast
the asteroid rock refuses to budge.
Get rid of this damn thing, it's ruining my life right now.
In my opinion this should've [bleep] been done
so I'm flipping out a little bit.
I need my [bleep] dredge in the water
and I'm losing my [bleep].
It's freaking me the [bleep].
Like, nobody understands how [bleep] important this really is right now.
But we all have to apply for a new [bleep] job
because we didn't get this [bleep] done.
What's our main objective today, brothers?
Parking spot for the boat.
Is that right?
Can you help me do that today, man?
Yeah, yep, yeah.
I'd really appreciate it.
Really appreciate it.
Put another head in there.
Oh, you wanna put another one in there?
[Dustin] Yeah, put, like, [bleep] as many boosters that'll fit in there.
Yeah, one more, yeah.
Let's drill some more holes, pop some more.
Just snap that [bleep] into a million pieces.
Argh.
[Dustin] Ready!
Three, two, one.
No.
Nothing.
What the [bleep] just happened?
That's our first misfire.
Did they get unplugged somehow?
They probably unplugged 'cause of the current.
Unplugged.
I know y'all are working hard and everybody's working hard
I just, I don't think everybody understands
how important it really is.
Fire in the hole! Three, two, one.
[explosion]
Whoa!
[Dustin] Almost died.
Oh, [bleep], you all right?
Whoa, dude.
-Holy [bleep]. -Freakin'...
-[Dustin] You almost died just now. -[Wes] Holy [bleep].
You almost died.
-[Wes] You all right? -[Dustin] Lucky [bleep] man.
That's some [bleep] that come flying, that was...
That piece is [bleep].
Three, two, one.
[explosion]
Whoa, whoa.
That was freakin'...
[Dustin] You almost died just now.
Did it get ya?
Holy [bleep].
This is 60-feet away and it hit right here,
Carlos was laying right there.
Holy [bleep].
Fly rock is absolutely the deadliest thing that there is.
I thought Carlos was a goner, dude. I was standing next to him
and it him and he went like this.
I... Oh, my God.
It just happened so fast.
It, like, hit the bank but it hit his shoulder at the same time.
And that rock weighs probably, 20, 25 pounds.
It blew the hell out of that rock though.
Are you hurt?
No, just tell me I'm not dead, dude.
He was bleeding for a little bit.
Well, I only got two rules, what are they?
[Carlos] Don't die.
-Don't get hurt. -[Carlos] Don't die.
No one tells my wife.
Oh, my God, do not put this on TV.
[Dustin] She'll kill ya.
Yeah, we figured it was a good time to call it for the day.
Yeah, dude, we're done.
[Dustin] It was almost catastrophic.
We're superstitious when it comes to big problems.
Holy moly.
[Dustin] When things start to go wrong
we bail, that's it.
I'm getting desperate right now.
It's going on too long, I'm running out of damn money.
[narrator] No dam, no dredge,
and one of his crew almost critically injured.
Dustin's week is left in ruins.
I've got too much tied up into this
and I thought we'd be in the damn water by now,
I was naive and dumb and now I'm desperate.
[narrator] At Porcupine, Scott Allen is the only member of Dustin's crew
that's actually dredging for gold.
All the pressure is on him to deliver a big pay day.
[Paul] Done.
[Scott] I think we found a good spot here, buddy.
Perfect.
Give me a tug on my umbilical so I can orientate myself.
All right, I'm pulling up on your hose.
That's not a bad dive, Scott, you've been in for like, five hours now, so.
[Fred] He's following the hose there.
[narrator] After a five hour dive
it's time to see if all their hard work has paid off.
Did you started cleaning bedrock?
[Scott] I was on bedrock for a good long while
so, I'm really excited to see what's in this.
[Paul] One way to find out.
Let's check it.
Shut it down, let's go check it out.
All right, come on, baby.
Is that?
[Bleep] yeah, dude.
There's three pieces right there.
That's nice.
That's, whoa, look. There you go, Scott.
[Scott] Wow.
Wow, that's some weight, man.
[narrator] Seven jewelry grade nuggets,
worth a lot more than fine gold.
It's been a long dry spell but...
-Somebody had to break it. -You found the right spot.
[Ryan] It's good to start finally seeing some gold.
I mean, this is the first good gold of the season.
This pond almost had us defeated.
It actually almost did.
Oh, yeah. Look at that.
[Fred] I made a few suggestions
on how to clarify that water a little bit.
Well finally today we got in there
we actually found a little bit of gold.
It's a little bit hard to leave right now.
Just found some gold.
But it's up to them to continue this
and it's time for me to exit stage left.
[narrator] On the next Gold Rush: White Water.
[Dustin laughing] The dredge made it to Nugget Creek.
All right, you guys, we're gonna do some heavy off-roading.
[Carlos] Oh, [bleep], it's working, man.
Keep on going, pull, pull.
Even with their head start,
my crew still got a dredge in the water first.
That's an awesome sight, seeing the dredge go in.
We are in the water, we are mining now.
[Dustin] My [bleep] chest hurts.
Freaking me out.
So I'm either having an anxiety attack
or a [bleep] heart attack.
He's gotta be all right 'cause we gotta get gold out of Nugget Creek.
Kayla's a beast, I just try to keep up.
[Kayla] You ready to find some gold?
Today's gonna be the change.
The change we needed.