[indistinct shouting]
[narrator] The Tsirku river,
Southeast, Alaska.
Dustin Hurt and his crew are on the nine-mile commute
into Nugget Creek.
[David] If I slow down, that water will sink us.
Holy [bleep]!
That was a long [bleep] ride, y'all.
If I had a bucket list, I could say,
this would be one of the things that I would
get to check off my bucket list.
Riding up a raging creek in an airboat.
[narrator] Restocked with fuel and supplies,
Dustin is hell bent on reaching bed rock
and a life-changing pile of gold.
This week, we do nothing but dive.
We dive, dive.
We're gonna move boulders and dredge everyday.
We'll have gold in hand by the end of the week
for sure.
[woman 1] Woah, woah! Watch out!
[man 1] [bleep] That was right against my head.
Holy [bleep]! The battle's on, man.
It's always been on.
[man 1] Yeah, I'm getting my ass kicked.
It's a war, man.
[man 2] Yeah, I think you're leaking gasoline.
[man 3] [bleep] That's burning! Help!
-Help me with that. -[man 2] I got you.
[man 3] I was like, in the quarry, you know?
Rocks to my left, rocks to my right.
Rocks to my front.
We're gonna get gold today.
It's gonna be all worthwhile. We're gonna get gold.
[man 4] Look at that, buddy!
We're gonna get more gold than we ever thought.
This is gonna be amazing.
[narrator] Two months into the five-month season
at Nugget Creek...
[man 1] We got a good claim, dude.
[man 2] It's time to get some real gold.
[narrator] ...at his most remote claim,
Dustin's been pushed to the limit
to get both dive sites operational.
[Dustin] I don't care if something breaks.
We're gonna fix it that instant and keep going.
[narrator] Finally, Dustin's time has come.
This is his first chance to dive for gold.
Real nice.
I'm going diving, y'all!
Time to get in the water.
[man 1] We need to find nuggets.
We need to find nuggets. Soon.
[Dustin] No more prep.
Just dig.
Find gold.
[Wes] The water's raising today.
It's not clear.
But Dustin's used to diving in water that's not clear.
But we know there's a lot of gold in this creek.
We need a sign.
We've put in so much work now.
I think by the end of the week,
we should have some gold coming out of here.
-You ready to have a good day? -[Wes] Yeah.
[Dustin] Be my first dive of the year.
Little late, but...
I guess better late than never.
[Wes] All right.
Oh, no! [bleep]
[Wes] This is gonna be a typical bull [bleep] day.
[bleep] dang it!
What happened?
It keeps dying.
Oh, we forgot to turn the [bleep] fuel off.
The whole crank case is probably full of gasoline.
[narrator] All night, gas has been flooding
into the motor that supplies air to the diver.
Damn it!
[engine revs]
It's not how I wanted this to go.
[Wes] It's gonna cost us a couple of [bleep] hours.
[narrator] Dustin's first dive of the season
is on hold until Wes can repair the flooded engine.
We are so far behind.
If we stop working for a day right now,
we are in deep trouble.
[narrator] Down at the trailhead,
Kayla and her crew are moving in
the heavy lifting gear.
[man 1] That's good right there, dude.
[narrator] Last week,
Kayla dug down four feet
to discover the route to bedrock,
blocked by huge boulders.
[Kayla] It's getting to the point where
I'm limited in what I can do.
They're some big rocks
that I can't get out until we get a winch.
[narrator] Now, the crew will install the winch system.
We can get these up there.
You guys are gonna bring the generator up.
-[man 1] Yeah. -[man 2] Yeah.
Once we're all up there, we'll get these mounted.
That way, tomorrow, we can get you in the water pole.
Right now...
we can't get any depth because we're locked in with rocks.
So, once we get these mounted, get that going,
we can start pulling the bigger rocks.
[man 1] Yeah.
[narrator] Kayla and Scott start the 1,100-foot hike in.
Each with a 100-pound load on their back.
[Kayla] This is the only part that sucks, 'cause...
[Scott] Yeah, I know.
[Kayla] It's really steep.
[narrator] Just a month ago...
[man 1] Woah, woah! Watch out, watch out.
[narrator] ...Kayla was struck by a 300-pound boulder.
[Kayla] Are you [bleep] kidding me?
[man 1] Get her out of there.
[Kayla] Well, my ankle's still a little bit weird.
I don't trust it at steep angles.
[Scott] These ropes suck, huh?
You need a hand, or...
-[Kayla] I'm good. -[Scott] You good? Okay.
[Scott] These winches weigh about a 100 pounds.
So, she's almost hiking her entire body weight right now.
She's still getting it done.
That's impressive.
[Kayla] Well, I hope I don't fall.
I'm good.
Just my ankle, that's all.
Nice job.
There.
I'll take the weight back here if you unstrap.
-Got you. -Thank you.
[Kayla] I'm gonna take a breather.
Nice job.
[narrator] To run the winches,
the crew needs the large generator
that weighs in at more than 140 pounds.
Marine veteran Scott insists on taking the load.
[Scott] I feel like carrying some heavy stuff.
All right.
[indistinct chatter]
[Scott] It's a buckle. Hang on.
[man 1] ...put on the packs.
It was like no good angle at them.
The pack is rubbing my back raw.
[Scott] Oh, [bleep] dude.
Oh, it's drain-- No, it's draining.
[man 1] I don't think you're leaking gasoline.
[Scott] [bleep] Yeah, it's going right down
your [bleep].
Help. Help me with it.
That's burning.
[grunts]
Oh, that hurts!
[bleep]
[man 1] Where's your...
[man 2] It's around here somewhere.
Oh, [bleep] Okay.
I think I'm gonna have to get wet.
[man 2] You're gonna have to get wet, dude.
[man 2] Yup.
Okay. Okay. I got you.
Yeah, I know. That sucks, dude.
I don't wanna rub it too much, dude.
[narrator] A 100 miles from the nearest hospital,
Scott is at risk of chemical burns,
taking him out of the game.
[man 2] Is it still burning?
It stings.
It's like all the way down on my left butt cheek.
-[man 2] Go shower up, dude. -[Scott] Yeah.
[narrator] At Kayla's dive site...
When the guys get back with the generator,
it's ready to go.
[narrator] She's going it alone with the upstream winch.
[Kayla] They're heavy.
It's tricky.
[narrator] It's a 60-foot zig zag across the creek.
Try not to slip.
[bleep] damn it!
[bleep]
There's one big boulder right in the middle
and I can't reach over it.
[Scott] Gonna go get an eye on her.
She's trying to go across to that winch.
Are you gonna put this up?
[man 1] Yeah, I probably will.
Do you wanna just take it over there then?
[man 1] I can. Will that be easier?
[Kayla] Probably.
Last thing I need to do is fall in this water
with a winch strapped to my back.
[man 1] Yeah, that would not be good.
That's like a anchor.
Now that we have the winches here,
the next step's to get them mounted
and get our cables strung up.
That's gonna be a huge game changer for us.
Now we're able to pull the bigger rocks
without having to split them.
So, it's gonna be a lot faster.
[narrator] 600 feet down creek...
-[man 1] Hey, buddy. -[Dustin] What's up, man?
[narrator] ...the flooded dredge motor
is putting Dustin's first dive of the season at risk.
Should I start getting my gear together?
[Wes] Yeah, it's ready.
Well, it's kind of a sample fix
but it was a waste of a couple of hours.
Just one more thing in the line of crap out here
in wild Alaska.
And, go!
[Wes] Oh, but for all of us to hear you.
[Dustin] Yeah, buddy!
Wooh! Smoking.
Time to get suited up, get in the water.
I just wanna dive.
If these guys would let me dive every day,
I'd dive every single day.
Big hole, mines of gold.
[narrator] After two hours lost dive time,
Dustin can finally go for gold
in the most inaccessible waters of nugget creek.
Let's do this.
Water's good.
Yeah, there it goes.
It seems pretty hot, want to put this last.
-[Dustin] Yeah. -[man 1] Okay.
[Dustin] I'm excited for my first dive, man.
Me too.
How's that breathing?
[Dustin] That's it. Nailed it.
Oh, all right.
Let's see if I can get some dredging down there.
That's what we're here for, right?
Yeah, make a hole, make a hole.
[Dustin] Water's so crazy.
My idea is...
if I could follow the bedrock,
on the wall,
it's just gonna be easier digging.
At least I have one that's bedrock
that's not gonna fall on me.
Copy that, copy that. That makes sense.
So, are you on bedrock right now?
[Dustin] I'm on the wall and that's bedrock.
Yeah, what I'm gonna do is, try to follow this wall
and that wall's gonna turn out towards the center of the creek
at some point.
And then, we'll know what we're dealing with.
[narrator] Last week,
James and Carlos dug down six feet
near the granite astronaut boulder.
Dustin's plan,
dig down beside bedrock on the far creek wall,
expand out to connect to the existing dive hole
to expose more of the bedrock gold.
[Carlos] Instead of us trying to like,
pinpoint bedrock in the middle of the creek
where it's nice and calm,
he went the most roughest place.
[Dustin] If I lift my head up,
it wants to rip my damn head off.
There's tons of debris right here.
Ah, the [bleep] regulator's locking up.
It's got a rock stuck in it somewhere.
[narrator] One hour in, Dustin's equipment is failing
in the furious creek waters.
Without a functional regulator,
his first dive is over.
[grunts]
[narrator] In the raging waters of Nugget creek,
Dustin's equipment is failing.
[Dustin] Ah, [bleep], the regulator's locking up.
It's got a rock stuck in it somewhere.
Ah!
[Carlos] We gotta take it apart, man.
[Dustin] Be gentle.
I can already breathe out better now. [chuckles]
It's just got a rock in it, I know.
I knew it's got a spring in there and everything.
It's all it is, just a little rock stuck in that little...
diaphragm somewhere.
-[Carlos] Holy [bleep]! -[Dustin] Yep, there you go.
-[Carlos] Look at all that. -[Dustin] That is...
Keep... Dump it out. Like, bang it out.
-It was stopping me from breathing, dude. -[Carlos] Yeah.
[Dustin] I could breathe in, but I couldn't breathe out.
It was awful.
[narrator] In search of a quick fix
to get Dustin back in the water,
Carlos gets creative.
Women's pantyhose.
That, my friends, is a quick push fix.
[Dustin giggles]
Getting air out of the mask is impossible
when it gets rocks stuck in a little diaphragm.
All right, let's gesture out.
[Dustin] All right, let's...
Yeah. So much better, dude.
We are in serious business of dredging.
Hope with all that dredge,
man, all our prayers go for gold, gold, gold.
[Dustin] Yeah, there's a lot of rocks floating around.
[grunts] I got giants over the top of me,
right upstream too.
I'm under [bleep]
That pulp right there...
is a big boulder that wants to kill me, right here.
And I need to center pop that [bleep].
[narrator] While clearing four feet of gravel
beside the bedrock wall,
Dustin's undermined a huge widowmaker.
If it falls...
it could crush him.
I don't know what's gonna happen with the popping,
but it needs to go.
It's over my head, man.
[Carlos] This creek changes all the time.
If you move one boulder,
you have no idea what that might do.
It might speed up the water, where you're dredging.
You have no idea.
[Dustin] [bleep] How do I get into this [bleep]?
That's a huge boulder. I don't think it's gonna move.
But I'd love to crack it.
This is so stupid.
Oh, I see. You're trying to make
[bleep] water block with your body, I got it.
[Carlos] Do you think you could find a better spot,
the hardest spot to drill?
[Dustin] I think we're just gonna pop it like this, y'all.
Let's see what happens.
Yeah, I'm getting my ass kicked.
[chuckling]
Get the hell out of here.
[grunts]
Watch your blue cord. Watch your blue cord.
Watch the blue cord.
Crack it.
Three, two, one...
[explosion]
[Dustin] I just busted right through that sucker.
[man] That was perfect!
[Dustin] I can't get anywhere because of all these
broken [bleep] pieces we put down here.
While the winches are running, man,
we can choke them out of there, if we need to.
[Dustin] Gonna try.
[Wes] Okay, I'll bring the ball back up there close
so you can deal with it.
[narrator] Dustin's crew installed their winch system
two weeks ahead of Kayla.
It's capable of pulling 6,000 pound boulders
from the creek bed.
[Dustin] It's off now, off the bottom.
[indistinct]
[man 1] Yeah!
Yeah!
[indistinct]
We got some good real estate here.
Is it standable?
[Paul] It's a bit strong right here on the current.
[narrator] 500 feet up the creek,
Kayla's upstream winch is in place.
Now, she and Paul just have the downstream winch
to install.
[Kayla] You need me to hold it in place while you get up there?
[Paul] Yeah, you probably will have to.
[narrator] Three hours after his accident,
Scott is back at the dive site.
[Paul] All right.
Kayla!
-That color. -[Kayla] I heard.
Yeah.
[Paul] Oh, man! We are close.
Just gotta manipulate a couple little bolts.
And we're gonna have us a downstream winch.
We can start pulling rocks now.
Don't drop your nuts.
[Paul] They dropped a long time ago!
[Kayla chuckles]
[Scott] That's not what she said.
[Kayla] That went on really fast.
[Paul] We needed something to go right.
[Kayla] So, first thing tomorrow morning,
we'll try to get us pulled up.
Hopefully, we can get that done in a decent time
and still get Paul in the water to get a good dive in.
You know what that means?
We have one thing left.
One thing.
And we are at full capacity in full dredge mode
in gold!
[narrator] Down creek at the Golden Gate site...
[Dustin] How's the box looking?
Sending some good material over, man.
[narrator] After four hours widening the dive hole,
and sending gravel through the sluice...
[Dustin] I gotta get out.
[narrator] ...Dustin calls time.
[Dustin] I am tired. I didn't realize.
[grunts] Fresh air.
[man 1] Good dive.
You seeing gold?
We got rocks in them.
No gold.
I just had a great dive
and I can't wait to see what's under these
huge boulders underneath there.
And I want James to get through them,
dredge underneath them,
and see if there's any paydays.
I hope they're sitting on bedrock, honestly.
I think they might be.
[narrator] At Kayla's dive site...
My first dive here at Nugget Creek.
I'm a little excited to get in
and see what it's all about here.
[narrator] Winches in place,
Scott and Justin must now thread the cable
capable of pulling over 6,000 pounds
before Paul can begin his battle with the boulders.
[Paul] We're starting to get this area opened up.
We get a little bit further ahead,
get some of these rocks out,
then we can focus on...
trying to go down and see if we can find bedrock.
If we can find some gold today...
it's gonna be a good day.
[Kayla] So far, it seems like things are going
a bit more smoothly.
So, if those winches are working,
with Paul in the water,
we should be able to move a lot of material today.
Which we definitely need.
We need that break.
How's your air?
-[Paul] It's good. -[Kayla] Good.
All right, you're good to go.
[Paul] Here we go.
Yeah, it's not very deep right here.
Right here is where you were dredging, right?
Yeah, all right here.
[Paul] Okay. It might have filled in a little bit.
[Kayla] Well, I have this little crate
if you ever wanna set it in front here that you could fill up
and then I can move the rocks for you
till we get the winches going.
[Paul] Okay.
[narrator] Last week, at just a few feet down,
Kayla hit a layer of heavy boulders,
making it impossible to go any deeper
to bedrock gold.
Until the winches are running,
Paul and Kayla can only remove smaller boulders
by hand.
[Kayla] I'm basically being the human winch
in moving all the rocks.
Which is pretty tiring.
Made that rock my [bleep].
Paul is dredging. He's making a lot of progress.
There's big rocks in there.
So, it's hard to get any real depth going right now.
But we're still getting a lot done
despite the hardships that we're having.
[Paul] Far as I can see,
about four inches.
And it's not pitch black.
[Scott] We're done up here, bro.
[sighs] Let's see how that looks.
[Kayla] Woah, woah! Watch out.
[Paul] That was right against my head.
[Kayla] Scott, can you talk when you're doing stuff,
so Paul can hear you?
He didn't know what was going on when that cable flung up.
Yeah, that is a 1,000 per cent my bad.
Sorry, Paul.
[Paul] I still got my head. I'm good.
You didn't rip my head off, yet.
[Scott] [bleep] sorry, man.
I'm sorry.
Paul, we're gonna pull the line up.
[Paul] Yes.
We're gonna get that headache ball to him,
so that way, he can hook up a boulder
and hopefully, we'll see this thing, pull it out successfully.
[Paul] Okay, it's hooked this time.
[Scott] Oh, look at that.
Wooh! That's a good one.
[Paul] That definitely got rid of that rock.
That's gonna open up some territory.
It's at least three foot, four foot deeper.
Paul's getting some more depth added to the hole.
So far, we've had a really good day.
Fingers crossed it stays that way.
[Carlos] I think we're good to go, James.
That water's freaking nice and boiling.
Thank you. Awesome. I appreciate it.
[narrator] At the Golden Gate site,
after Dustin widened the dive hole,
today, James will take on the massive asteroid boulder
over-hanging the dig.
I had a dream that I found two nuggets.
Let's hope it comes true.
I'm looking forward to the dive.
I wanna be able to dredge
and pop rocks and move boulders.
And get the material out.
I just wanna be able to...
get down deep today.
You guys got my back, right?
[Dustin] Yeah, baby. We got you.
[James] Okay.
[Dustin] We need to get rid of that big asteroid rock.
[indistinct]
It's on the surface, I feel.
Go up and feel what's above you.
[James] This asteroid rock is something else.
[Dustin] I wanted you to know, it's above your head, all right?
[James] I'd get rid of that sucker.
This rock keeps going down, holy crap!
[narrator] James' mission,
blast off sections of the 20,000-pound
asteroid boulder overhanging the widened dive hole.
Danger removed,
James can get back to digging down
to bedrock gold.
[indistinct]
Good catch, Ben. I got you set up for two chargers.
Right now, we're making the most progress
we can possibly make.
[Dustin] How's your water doing, man?
You know you can talk to me, right?
[James] I don't know why I'm not talking as much
'cause I'm more focused on thinking about what I'm doing.
'Cause it's dangerous down here.
One rock at a time, that's all you're focused on.
[James] I can't find the freaking hole I drilled.
Water's pretty hot.
[narrator] A sudden rise in temperature
in James' dive suit
is a dangerous sign.
The heating system relies on a constant flow of water.
A blockage in the filters
means less water in the heat exchange.
Which then turns into superheated steam
that will surge down
into James' dive suit.
Hey, why don't you piss out,
come up, we'll give it a check.
[Carlos] Hey!
Come here!
[Carlos] This it's about to get too hot.
Something's wrong.
[Wes] We made a half inch dredge.
[Dustin] This one was about to burn.
I could smell it.
[narrator] At Dustin's Golden Gate site,
the raging water of Nugget Creek
pushes the crew and the equipment
to the limit.
[Dustin] This is the one that's getting hot over here.
I can smell it.
[narrator] For the second time this week,
a dive is on hold.
The dredge is overheating,
putting James at risk of being burned
by superheated steam.
[James] Thanks for catching it.
This water's...
a tough one to deal with.
[Dustin] We're just trying to keep you safe, man.
[James] Yeah.
[narrator] The mission to blast off sections
of the asteroid boulder
is at a standstill.
Can't figure out what's happening
but we're getting particulates inside of our heaters,
and we have good filter systems.
We may have just wore these out.
Or there's something wrong with our filter system.
I can't figure it out, to tell you the truth.
[narrator] Wes' temporary fix,
re-plum the dredge,
sending the creek water around the exhaust chamber
of just one of the two motors.
[Wes] It'll be real easy just to...
start shutting down the ... and then, we can figure it out.
[narrator] Reducing the heat will protect James
from serious burns.
But could put him at risk of hypothermia
in the 38-degree water of Nugget Creek.
I would dive with this.
[James] Let's try it out.
[Dustin] All right.
How does it feel?
[James] Getting there.
Warm on my back.
But not on my chest, yet.
I gotta wiggle around, I guess.
Hey, I don't know what to do, man.
It's all I got right now, not to burn you up.
James' a tough guy,
so, he's not gonna admit that he's suffering down there.
[James] [bleep] this boulder.
I'm gonna try plan B.
[Dustin] I think he's digging straight down
behind the asteroid rock.
He didn't listen to me, it's okay.
Y'all usually don't.
Why don't you just [bleep] dig it?
[narrator] Undermining the granite asteroid boulder
is a high-risk strategy.
[James grunts] [bleep] that hurt.
[Dustin] You okay?
[James] I got bit.
[bleep] that hurt.
[narrator] James smashed his hand into a granite shard.
You want gold?
It's gonna give you a freaking battle.
The battle's on, man. It's always been on.
It's win-lose, win-lose, win-lose.
It's a war, man.
[Carlos cheers] Yeah!
Good job, man! Awesome, dude.
Hell, yeah!
[Dustin] How you doing down there, buddy?
[James] Pretty good.
Just digging and digging.
[Dustin] Copy that.
If you listen close enough,
you could hear, he's pulling through his teeth almost,
because he's cold.
It's subtle,
but I've been listening to him breath for years now.
And I know everyone's breath
and how they feel when they're doing it.
It's like a different language
when you listen to somebody breath
all the damn time.
How's your water?
[James] I'm getting pretty cold.
[Dustin] Time to come up.
[James] Yeah.
[Dustin] All right, get out of there.
We'll come, grab you up.
All the reason.
Good job, brother. Good time.
Hold that for me.
Good dive, brother.
That was the scary one down there.
Had a fear of being behind that asteroid boulder
and it starts moving...
because I undermined everything over there.
Deeper I go, settle in on me and next thing you know,
I'm dead.
[Dustin] James is on a mission
and he wants to go straight down.
So...
he didn't crack the rock that I wanted
but he a big damn hole and he moved a lot of rock.
So, he wants to go straight down to the bottom.
I understand, that's all of us.
We wanna go straight down.
It gets dangerous.
It's a good way to die.
A real good way to die.
[bleep]
[narrator] Up creek, at Kayla's dive site...
[Scott] How you doing there, Paul?
[Paul] Get a little bit of depth going.
Raw spots on my hands...
[narrator] After six hours hauling out rocks,
Paul is down to five feet.
[Kayla] All right, Paul, you wanna go ahead and come up?
[Paul] Yeah.
[Paul] It's like a big task.
[Kayla] You had a good dive today.
We did make some progress as far as the depth.
These boulders are so locked in here right now.
It's taking a lot to get them apart.
Everything feels like concrete.
So, all my time in McKinley dredging,
I've never experienced this
except for when we were on bedrock.
To me, it's a good sign, because if it's like this,
I don't think this has been touched.
[narrator] It's more challenging than any other claim.
But the huge boulders of Nugget Creek promise
the greatest reward.
I saw a couple little flakes.
-Really? -Yeah.
[bleep] yeah!
She found some flakes in there.
Oh, [bleep]
There's another one.
The deeper we go, the better it should get.
Well, it's not enough to justify
all the work that we've done or pay any bills
or anything like that.
It's a good sign that
there could be a lot better stuff waiting down below.
We go several feet
and it's already getting like, harder.
Not like hard packed per se, but like...
-Just locked together. -Just more locked in.
-Awesome. -[Scott] And not touched.
[Paul] That's... Yeah, that's the impression I got
when I saw that.
It's like, it's never been touched.
'Cause this is nothing like McKinley.
It was like the bottom three feet of McKinley.
[Kayla] And with that, we're really hopeful
that we're gonna find some really good gold here this year.
[Dustin] I hope that you're right there.
I'm so excited for your guys.
I'm guessing we're about twice as deep as you guys.
[Kayla] I think your site's gonna be deeper.
It's gonna be much deeper.
You guys are gonna bust in the bedrock before us, probably
'cause we have such huge damn rocks.
Let's try to hit bedrock.
I truly believe it's only eight to ten feet tops.
Like, that's what I believe.
That's what I've been told all the way across the board.
We got to find the bottom of this thing
and see if there's any gold.
Everybody, pay attention.
Let's get down to bedrock. Y'all ready?
All right. Let's get going.
[narrator] At Dustin's Golden Gate site...
[Dustin] Ready for you, Carlos.
[Carlos] I'm just getting all this stuff ready, dude.
[Dustin] I love you, man!
But get in the [bleep] water.
[narrator] Next to dive is Carlos.
His mission is to go head-to-head
with the asteroid boulder.
As always man,
keep your nose going and...
temperature change on me, I'm coming up.
[Dustin] I got you!
Go down and dig. Do what you do.
Move as many big rocks as you can.
The more big rocks you get out of there,
the deeper we can go.
Pretty sure that you're gonna get on some gold today.
[Carlos] Let's go diving.
Diver in the water.
Okay. Got a pretty good size hole.
It's a lot of kitty litter, as we expected.
Oh, you mother...
I got bit.
You bastard!
Definitely gonna do some blasting today.
[narrator] Yesterday, James ignored Dustin
and dug straight down underneath
the 20,000-pound boulder,
deepening the dive hole to eight feet.
Removing the overhang
is the only way to make it safe
for Carlos to dredge down deeper
to bedrock gold.
[Carlos] About the asteroid boulder, man...
they're dangerous, dude.
That's it, right here.
Those are the asteroid boulders.
If I could start drilling...
[Dustin] I got a drill ready for you.
[Carlos] All right.
All right guys, I'm ready for those powerheads.
[Dustin] Go for the pop!
Go!
[Carlos] Oh, yeah.
That opened up a lot of rocks.
You might choke on that.
I gotta pick it right here.
[James] Is it a double winch or a single?
[Carlos indistinct]
-Let's find out. -Yeah, let's find out.
[Carlos] Yeah!
I'm ready to go.
[Dustin] All right, here we go. Move it.
[Carlos] All right.
Oh, you get some head weight. Yeah!
[Dustin] Yeah!
[Carlos] That's that asteroid.
[Dustin] Wow!
Look at that.
[Carlos] Good [bleep], Wes. Good [bleep], man.
[Dustin] Nice hook. Nice hook.
That is a big part of the asteroid rock.
It was very deep underneath.
It's such a big boulder.
It's definitely gonna be gold all around it.
The deeper we get around that asteroid boulder,
we're gonna get bigger gold.
[Paul] Get a little excited about getting in the...
Nugget Creek for the first time?
[Scott] I'm finally back to being excited.
I'm ready to get in this water, dude.
[narrator] After dredging the first flakes of gold
in the shallows of Kayla's site,
Scott is next on the trail of bigger tressure below.
[Scott] I mean, it's go time, y'all.
With a fire under my ass to get into the water,
get those boulders out of the way,
and get down some depth...
try to push for bedrock.
Awesome if I hit bedrock today.
I'm gonna get gold today. It's gonna be all worthwhile.
I'm gonna get gold.
[Scott] You said you had a hole here.
[Paul] Must have filled back in.
[narrator] Overnight, the fast flowing creek
has filled the hole with loose gravel
and boulders.
[Scott] This one has them stuck.
No. Once I get this out,
I can go...
[Kayla] Can you feel how far back it goes?
[Scott] I can move it.
It's loose.
It's definitely loose.
I can get around it, I can choke it quite easily.
[Paul] Did you choke her?
See if we can pull this rock over the damn.
[Scott] Come down on me a little bit.
That's good, that's good.
All right, come up...
You might have lost it, I don't know.
[Kayla] I don't think so.
Looks like it's working good.
It's working good.
Look at that.
We can pull that rock wherever I want to.
That's a game changer.
[narrator] In the freezing water of Nugget Creek...
[Scott] Ah, [bleep]!
[narrator] ...Scott is in trouble.
[Scott] Oh, [bleep]!
[Kayla] What's wrong?
[Scott] It just stole my [bleep] shoe.
[Kayla] Scott lost his shoe.
-[giggling] -[Scott] I can't find it.
[Scott] [bleep] I can't find it.
[giggles] Are you ticklish?
[Scott] I am extremely ticklish on my feet.
Oh, don't do that.
I'm really ticklish, this is not fair.
I'd get it for you, but I can't.
[Scott] That's not fair.
...I got it!
Got it?
Victory!
[Scott] Oh, that's so cold too.
Oh, that's cold.
[Kayla] How are you doing, Scott?
[Scott] And I'm almost six feet down.
[narrator] After three hours, hauling out heavy rocks,
Scott is finally adding depth to the dive hole
at Kayla's Nugget Creek site.
[Paul] Yeah, that's not a small rock, dude.
[Scott] [bleep] mountain sticking up.
It does, doesn't it?
[Scott laughing]
[Paul] That's a big win.
[Kayla] How are you doing?
[Scott] My [bleep] head hurts.
[narrator] Adding a foot to the dive hole,
Scott's ready to call it.
[Scott] We know I like long dives.
But I could feel my head hurting.
[Kayla] Still got quite a bit done, though.
I opened that hole up a lot.
[Kayla] Yeah.
That is a... That hole is...
double the size from when I went in.
I understand the reasoning for Scott getting out.
I don't want anyone in the water if they don't feel good.
He still got a lot done, though.
I'm gonna check the box,
see if we got anything in there.
I don't see anything big, yet.
A lot of pyrite.
[Paul] There's a lot of pyrite.
[Kayla] Tons of pyrite.
No nuggets, yet.
[Paul] Yeah, we're probably not gonna see those
until we get about a foot off the bedrock.
I know everybody wants seven feet deep,
but we take it 12 to 15,
then we hit it at seven, we'll be excited.
The older reports that I read said,
average 12 to 20.
I'm okay with 12 feet, though.
Looking at it, I just don't think it's gonna be 20.
[Paul] I don't think so either.
It's the way the walls are coming down in the canyon.
The 12 feet, we got it.
[Scott] Yeah.
Seven feet is gonna be even better.
[Kayla] We didn't see any gold, but...
we got that much closer to getting to bedrock.
So hopefully, we're that much closer to getting gold.
[narrator] Down at the Golden Gate site,
Carlos is five hours into his dive.
[Dustin] How you doing down there, buddy?
[Carlos] Not going good, man.
I'm getting deeper.
Moving some rocks.
[narrator] After removing the overhanging section
of the asteroid boulder,
Carlos is now deepening the dive hole.
[Wes] Do you want the choker or the basket?
[Carlos] Basket. Absolutely basket.
He's getting pretty deep.
I don't know how deep he's getting, but...
he's been moving quite a few boulders out of the way.
[indistinct]
[Carlos] Oh, [bleep]!
Oh, [bleep]!
[indistinct]
You let it get to you?
[Carlos] Yeah, it got me good.
You have no idea, man.
Bit my fingers bad, man.
The end of that suction,
will grab your hand and it's a six-inch tube
and it'll bend all your damn fingers back
and try to break your hand off.
[Carlos] This is not a friendly place for dredging, you know?
This is a constant battle.
[narrator] At six hours, Carlos is reaching his limit.
Okay, man. I might have been a little bit zealous.
I got tired... [chuckles]
I'm calling it.
Diver's coming up.
I think Carlos just pulled off the longest dive in the season so far.
[Carlos] What? Thank you.
Damn good job, man.
[Carlos] Ah, that was a decent dive.
I didn't get all I wanted to do.
But I was like, in the quarry, you know?
Rocks to my left, rocks to my right.
Rocks to my front.
[narrator] Carlos' epic dive has got the dive hole down to eight feet.
[Dustin] See any gold?
Well, it started, man.
Look at that, buddy.
I knew there was gold here.
[Wes] If our small gold is this big or bigger,
we're in for a treat.
-That is not small. -[Carlos] Hey, that's gold, dude.
That's gold.
That [bleep] that's really exciting.
So, that means like, we're on the freaking money, man.
[Wes] Look, check that out, dude.
[Dustin] All right.
That's a pretty good start. I mean, for our first gold.
I'm not gonna complain.
-[Dustin] That's big too. -[Wes] It is.
That's a good sign, man. Seeing gold.
We're gonna find gold before we got to the bedrock,
[indistinct]
we know that we're gonna get gold now for sure.
[narrator] After seven weeks of back-breaking work at Nugget Creek,
Dustin and his crew have finally dredged their first gold.
I'm so excited that we didn't have to get to bedrock
to find gold.
We found gold at eight feet deep.
I love this place.
Even more than I ever thought.
I hated thinking I was gonna go bankrupt.
This is gonna happen for us.
Finally...
We're gonna get more gold than we ever thought.
And this is gonna be amazing.
[narrator] On the next Gold Rush: White Water...
These boulders are kicking our ass.
[Dustin] That went up my butt!
[Kayla] Scott, look at this.
[Scott] That's clay.
[indistinct]
This is gonna be a game changer.
What I'm talking about. Go, go, go!
[Kayla] I saw a couple of little flakes.
[Scott] That's awesome.
[Carlos] A storm, coming through.
It is a big one.
Gold is great. Your life is more.
Whenever it feels like we're making progress,
something sets us back.
Why you so mad? Like, I'm just trying to help.
[Wes] You came and took over what I was doing.
He's cracked under too much pressure.
I have a feeling, he's calling the season.