[suspenseful music playing]
[Dustin] Carlos is digging like crazy.
How deep you think you are right now?
[Carlos] Man, I'm in some 30 stuff, dude.
I can't barely see.
Ah, right here, it's about 10 feet.
[narrator] Deep in the Alaskan wilderness,
a month ahead of schedule,
Dustin Hurt has his first diver in the water.
So what do you see, man? What do you see?
[Carlos] That just drops off, man.
Just drops off to oblivion right here.
Why don't you follow that for a little while,
see what you get down to, man.
If we don't find gold,
I'm not coming back.
I got too much riding on this.
I can't afford to fail.
All right, Carlos, is this your final call.
Let's get you out of here.
All right.
Call it a dive.
[Wes laughs]
Woo!
Gold nugget. Don't worry.
I'm that [bleep] see a nugget.
[Carlos] Nugget?
[cheering]
- [man] Yeah! - [bleep].
Dude.
[laughs]
- [Carlos] No way. - [Wes] Look.
- That's a gold nugget! - [bleep] Yeah.
- [Carlos] That's a gold nugget! - [Wes] Yeah!
[man] I didn't get to see.
Oh, my God!
[bleep] yeah. Yeah!
[Wes] First gold ever this early!
[man] Watch out, behind you.
[groans]
[Dustin] Carlos is [bleep] pinned.
It's an easy way to die out here.
Almost there.
[Dustin] Okay. Pull under the water.
Pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull.
[bleep].
Moment of truth, folks.
[man] Ouch. [bleep] hold on.
[man] Lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift.
[bleep] if we lose this damn thing
we're in deep damn trouble.
So how are you doing, man?
Don't think about me, man.
Get out there and freakin' find that damn gold.
[man] Dive there in the water.
[Carlos] Oh, that's perfect.
[Dustin] All the near death incidents.
All the chances we take.
All the heartbreak.
Here we come.
This is our year.
[James] Ah, y'all ready for this?
[narrator] As the harsh Alaskan winter
gives way to spring.
[James] Woo! Yeah.
First fire of the season everybody.
[Carlos] Good job, James.
[James] Hell yeah, man.
[narrator] Dustin and his crew are back
for a last chance of redemption
in Nugget creek's legendary gold.
[Dustin] We've got such a big forward momentum
right now that everything's working out for us,
that cannot fail again.
We've been struggling to stay afloat.
We have to produce.
I'm just hoping that we can keep this momentum going,
it's gonna get us gold.
[narrator] Last season, Dustin faced
the destructive power of the Alaskan storms.
[Dustin] There's not a [bleep] thing we can do here.
[narrator] Desperate to avoid a repeat,
Dustin spent the off-season formulating a new game plan
on new ground.
We send a map...
and, uh, this is our boundaries.
What I've been told is we...
And this kind of proves it,
that we're about 200 to 300 feet
upstream too far with what we thought
was our property line.
[narrator] Now, the crew are in a race
to get on the gold faster than any other season.
[Dustin] I've got a different plan now.
When we first got here, I was gonna go
with our standard plan,
make a pool, put the dredge in,
- start digging. - Sure.
[Dustin] It's not the plan anymore.
I had some time to think about this.
And if you keep the water low enough,
we can make a really big area really quickly.
[Ryan] Yup.
And we're gonna dig by hand.
We're gonna dig an area
all the way down the hard pack
before we even think about bringing the dredge out.
- Yup. I agree. - [Dustin] I was thinking there's five of us
and we could dig one hell of a hole.
I agree on that. That's [bleep] awesome.
Find a hard pack, dredge that only, move on.
[Ryan] Yeah.
We need to go out and dig like maniacs
because I really wanna beat the flood this year.
I agree with you.
You don't understand how bad...
- [Ryan] We need this. - we need to see some gold.
Flood up.
Time to go.
This is a complete noon technique for us.
Until we find what I'm looking for,
we are not even gonna set that dredge in the water.
This is my new style.
I don't care if it's the right way, wrong way.
We're doing it my way.
[Carlos] Is it store, James?
[James] Oh, I bet you she does.
Come on, baby.
- Yeah, buddy. - [man] Oh, man.
[James] No problem.
Oh, this thing's hard to kill, huh?
Ridiculous.
All aboard the nugget express.
[laughter]
[James] Do we have fuel out there?
[Ryan] No. We'll have to carry some.
[Dustin] Grab your crowbars. Let's do this.
[narrator] It's a treacherous hike along a steep
narrow track just to reach the remote claim.
[Dustin] Woo. That got me warmed up.
New dig site. New Hope.
[narrator] Dustin's newly extended claim
now stretches 250 feet downstream.
This is on the claim and, uh,
we're gonna dig it.
We got high hopes for this area to go down deep
like a nugget catcher.
I hope that's the case.
We're desperate for nuggets at this point.
All right, here's what we're doing, guys.
So my main goal
is to dig this like that.
I want all this out of here.
This is what I want right here.
I wanna try the sides.
So all of this rock going that way
and what I'd really like is to build the wall
right there to get all the water on that side.
[Carlos] Got it.
[James] This is gonna be a lot of work,
but it's gonna pay off.
[narrator] Dustin's new mining plan divert the creek
with a wall of rocks to create a shallow area.
Instead of one diver working alone,
all five crew will quickly clear
the worthless overburden
following the bedrock wall
in search of a deep area of red hard pack.
Only then will they raise the water
so a diver can suck up the gold.
- [man 1] Ready? - [man 2] Yeah.
[man 3] I can't believe how hard granite is, dude.
[man 1] There we go.
[man 3] I forgot how mighty that cat stand.
[man 1] Perfect start.
[Carlos] Yeah.
Yeah.
We wanna get all hands on boulders and rocks
and throw 'em on this side
so we can make this divider.
Kind of like in a Goddang high highway.
Fast lane. Slow lane.
The slow water allows us to dig in our waiver.
There it goes!
Yeah!
[Dustin] We get a lot done really quick, man.
[Carlos] Yes. That was so weak.
We are crushing it. This is fast.
[narrator] Clearing the big boulders
has revealed a mound of loose gravels.
[Paul] This is a pile up area.
Any gold that was loose up there is right here.
[Dustin] That is moving way fast.
[Carlos] Man, we can get this out quick.
[narrator] The crew zero in on the bedrock wall
in the hope of finding a steep drop off.
The sign of a deep gold catch.
We get that pump going
and that way I can wash this stuff down.
[Dustin] What I was thinking you could do
is put it right there at the base.
[Paul] Yeah.
And just start hit hammering this
and it'll all go out through there.
- You get it? - [Paul] Yeah.
[Dustin] I don't know why I'm micromanaging you on this.
I apologize.
Can't help myself.
Son of a bitch, I'm becoming my father.
[laughter]
That's probably bedrock.
[Dustin] Oh, it is. That is bedrock.
Wow.
[Carlos] We're gonna try to follow bedrock
from the sides
and hoping, following that bedrock
gets to the fricking hard pack,
the red, dirty,
bloodish hard pack.
And that's where the gold is.
[Dustin] All right, everybody cross your finger.
If that bedrock goes straight down,
the deeper the better.
[Paul] Yup.
- [Paul] That's going real quick. - [Carlos] Oh, I'm loving this.
If this is where the gold settled,
this is where we need to be.
[Paul] I wanna... I'm like you I'm gonna see it
- going straight down. - [Dustin] How about... Yeah. If that...
If that bedrock falls straight down,
we are in business.
[Paul] Yup.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Dustin] Damn it.
So this is not what I wanted.
The bedrock is just shooting straight out.
[Paul] There's no way that that's a gold catch.
It would just take the gold over and wash it down.
[Dustin] You see how that's coming out?
This right here,
that is absolutely the opposite of what we want.
Damn it!
Man. It don't make any damn sense.
That was supposed to be deeper.
All right, that's all done.
No more effort on that.
Sorry.
Picked the wrong spot.
Just makes it even harder on us.
It's just so labor intense.
If I was a smarter guy, I know exactly
where the gold is, but damnit, I don't.
[grunting]
It's getting late. I don't have any answers yet.
That's enough of this.
Put it down and try to put rocks through a bee
into it while pining it down,
and it'll force water off.
[narrator] First light and the crew
were straight back on the hunt
for a gold-rich dive side.
[Dustin] Watch. This is about the hollow all.
Look at it.
We're using a stretch hose so the water,
the running water will help melt the snow.
[Paul] It's gonna chew that [bleep] out quick.
[Dustin] I don't wanna mess this up.
This might be our chance and if I blow it
and the rains come
and we haven't dug this out yet
and we didn't find anything, I don't...
That's not much story this year.
I want this year to be success.
We got to go extra hard.
All right. Let's get to it.
[intense music playing]
We're gonna take another section out of this
and we're gonna see where the bedrock goes.
I'm not sure if I'm doing this right, but
we... We're on the hunt.
This is called prospecting.
Just get some of these rocks out
so we can lower this water level down again.
[Dustin] Yeah. Yup.
That way we can get a good look of it.
[Dustin] Yeah.
This is my new method.
Hit-and-run.
Just dig, dig,
see what the bedrock looks like, move on.
[intense music playing]
[Paul] That's gonna open our water flow up a lot out here.
[James] Hope I can get a bite.
Tell me, you good?
[Paul] These boulder's gotta go.
[grunts]
[James] It might go right over.
Oh, look out behind you. Ow.
[Dustin] [bleep]. Get him out of there.
[Carlos groans]
[intense music playing]
[Paul] Oh, look out behind you. Ow.
- [Carlos groans] - [Dustin] [bleep] Carlos is pinned.
[narrator] As the crew search for a gold-rich dive site,
a half-ton boulder has pinned Carlos,
crushing his rib cage.
[Dustin] Get him out of there.
[Paul grunts] Okay, okay, okay, okay.
[Dustin] Get out of there.
Get out, get out. [bleep] move.
[intense music playing]
[James] Dude, that could've been bad, man.
[Paul] Yeah, yeah, dude.
[James] Holy [bleep].
Holy [bleep]. It was literally resting on you.
What d'you learn?
Never turn your back on boulders, dude.
Just take five, man.
Nobody got hurt,
it was just a scare.
A good reminder that it's an easy way to die out here.
Instead, we're still working.
[intense music playing]
[Paul] There it goes.
[Carlos] This works good.
[Dustin] I'm looking for this wall right here.
Bedrock wall.
It could be way in there
or it could be right next to this.
That looks like bedrock right there.
[Dustin] Now, follow that damn wall all the way down.
Let's see where it goes.
Down here, spray all the [bleep] right here.
[Paul] It's going down.
- Look at that [bleep] we're looking for. - [Dustin] That's hard pack.
[Dustin] That's [bleep] hard pack man.
That's what we're looking for.
[Carlos] That's a good sign.
So let's follow this,
- see where that bedrock goes. - [man] Yeah.
[intense music playing]
[narrator] The crew chased the hard pack layer
out towards the deepest point at the center of the creek.
[Dustin] If that's hard pack,
this is where we need to be dredging right now.
- Dig it. - [Paul] There it is, look, you see it?
- Look, look, look. - [man] Look at the water color,
- look at the water color. - [Paul] Look, there it is, there it is, look.
[Dustin] That's hard pack.
[Paul] It's hard pack, dude, look.
Do it right it, but it could be crumbling off.
[Dustin] All right.
I was not expecting that.
This is amazing.
- This is better. - [James] Wow.
[intense music playing]
All right. I think we found our dredge spot.
[James] It's gotta... It's gotta be starting to drop right here.
[Paul] Look at that, it's up to my knees.
Because if that's shallow and this is deep...
that's a gold catch.
[Dustin] Let's put a dredge on it.
It's the stuff we're gonna process.
Is everybody excited about this?
- [James laughs] - [Carlos] Yeah. We found it, man.
- [Dustin] Man. - We found it.
[James] That sounds perfect.
Without the dredge,
without a diver in the water, dude,
- we found a hard pack. - [Wes] Yeah.
If there's gold down underneath this stuff,
we'll know it real soon.
[Wes] Real fast.
So three things that have to happen,
we have to have a skyline to pull the dredge up
because it's been flooding.
Winches of some sort on that skyline.
We need to dredge together and move up here
right after that skyline
- or really close to when that skyline's... - [Wes] Yeah.
- gonna be finished. - [Wes] Yup, yeah.
Let's get that dredge going, man.
- [Wes] Yeah. - [Dustin] Let's go.
[intense music playing]
If all the stories are right...
right underneath that hard pack right there
is gonna be fatty nugs.
I'm nervous, but excited at the same time.
It's, uh, a long time coming.
I can't believe we made it back this year.
Now we got this?
Please let this be it, please let this be it.
[intense music playing]
[Paul] Now I'm getting excited.
[Dustin] Right?
Get all the dredge pieces,
get the dredge put together,
get it up to creek.
Wanna see some of that gold.
I mean, we're all excited
because we found hard pack already
with our method we're working this year.
I've got a feeling we're gonna have gold really,
really fast this year.
Hopefully by the end of the day,
we're gonna have to dredge up there,
we're gonna have it set up, running, ready to go.
[engine starts]
[Paul] One step closer now.
[narrator] While Paul and Wes work on the dredge,
Carlos and James will set up
the linchpin of their operation.
[sighs]
[narrator] The skyline.
[Carlos] We know from experience
that this creek is gonna flood.
Our money maker is the dredge.
A flood was to come in right here
where we're dredging at, there is no way in the world
we're gonna be able to get that dredge to higher ground.
So the skyline is gonna go
canyon wall to canyon wall.
And that is just to pick up the dredge.
[intense music playing]
[narrator] Last season,
Dustin came close to losing his $20,000 dredge
when the remnants of a coastal typhoon
stuck Nugget Creek.
[Dustin] Sounds like we lost everything
and everything's over.
[narrator] Installing a 30-foot skyline
across the creek
will allow them to lift their 2,000 pound dredge
clear of the deadly serge
from relentless Alaskan storms.
[James] Look at that.
At least one thing survived the flood,
is our skyline.
[narrator] Step one, find rock on the near side,
solid enough to hold the anchor bolts.
[Carlos] Whoa. Starting to crumble.
But it'll work, man.
As long as it keeps the dredge out of freaking harm's way.
No dredge, no gold.
[drill whirring]
[James] We got a long ways to go today.
Dustin wants this done today.
[narrator] While the crew race to prepare the dive site.
After two weeks off-grid,
Dustin makes the 30-mile trek
back to civilization
on urgent personal business.
[soft music playing]
[Dustin] I got Paul and Wes on the dredge
and I got James and Carlos on the skyline,
everything is gonna work out up there,
because that's easy stuff for them.
And, uh, gave me a chance to come down
and see if I can get Fred a call.
[horn blaring]
[narrator] It was Fred Hurt
who built their gold mining legacy.
- Hey, Fred, how are you? - [Fred] You all right?
[indistinct]
[narrator] And inspired his son to share
in their great gold mining adventure.
I don't know what I'm doing.
But I'm starting to learn though.
[narrator] Now, Dustin faces a solo future
after Fred's shocking diagnosis two months ago.
[Fred] I was diagnosed with brain tumor.
It's terminal.
[Dustin] So how's it going, Fred?
Hey, I'm doing fine.
So what's happening up there?
Uh, so we made it to camp,
we're up there, and we're in the creek already.
Yeah. So you're making a headway up there a little bit now.
Faster than we ever have, Fred.
We, uh, have changed up all of our style.
We've decided no longer to process
any of the top material at all.
Uh, that's a, uh, excellent decision.
Well, best advice I can say
is if it's going down keep going down...
- [Dustin] Yeah. - don't stay on the wall looking for something.
- It's what I'm doing. - Just keep going down.
Because whatever it is is going into that bottom.
So how are you doing, man?
[Fred] Pretty rough, man, pretty rough.
I did went through, uh, chemotherapy,
but at the same time I did radiation therapy
and I came out worse than when I went in.
Yeah. Losing a little hair.
- [Dustin] Your hair looks... - Too much I guess. [laughs]
it still looks great though.
Well, it's still there, that's about all
- that's good for. - [Dustin] Yeah.
Well, thank you for a nice set of hair by the way.
- This is awesome. - [Fred] Yeah.
You know, this stuff is,
you know, it's, uh, terminal.
One way... One time or another...
Hell, everybody dies some time.
[Dustin] Nobody gets out alive.
[Fred] It's, uh, hell when you...
When you know it's close.
[laughs]
- [Dustin] Yeah. I always... - Uh, don't think
about me, man.
Get out there and freaking find
that damn gold.
Well, you've been a big damn part of my life,
so it's kind of hard, so... [laughs]
[Fred] Uh, I understand.
Well, your 80th birthday's coming up.
You think you're gonna make it?
I've been threatened.
Better live long enough, you old sucker.
[laughter]
Try to hang on, Fred.
Uh, hopefully, we get to see you again
at maybe your 80th birthday.
Okay.
- All right. Well-- - [Fred] Well--
Love you, Fred, and we'll talk
- to you later. - Love you too.
Take care.
I'm gonna get back to work, man,
trying to get out there.
All right.
[engine starts]
Oh, he is not doing so great.
But, uh, he's still alive,
so he's still holding on.
[somber music playing]
[tense music playing]
All right, man. Go ahead.
- Moment of truth, folks. - [Carlos] Moment of truth.
[narrator] At Nugget Creek,
James and Carlos are putting
their new skyline anchors...
[Carlos] Go ahead.
[narrator] To the test.
[Carlos] Easy, little at a time.
Okay. Okay. I'll stop, I'll stop.
- This is ripping it out. - [James] Huh?
This is getting ripped out right here.
- [James] Nuh-uh. - [Carlos] Yeah, it is.
- [James] You serious? - [Carlos] Yup.
Okay. That's good right there.
- We're gonna have to put a-- - Nah!
Yeah, it is. It's ripping out dude.
Watch it. Go ahead.
[creaks]
[Carlos] Oh, [bleep]. Okay. [bleep] that.
Dammit.
They're all ripping out, aren't they?
Just these two [bleep] man.
[James] How the [bleep] are they ripping out?
Holy [bleep].
[Carlos] We're gonna get our ass ringed by fricking Dustin, man.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Dustin] Dustin to Carlos. Dustin to Carlos.
I'm coming back.
[narrator] After a 70-mile round trip
and a treacherous run up the wild Tsirku River,
Dustin's back at Nugget Creek,
hoping to put the new skyline to work.
Holy [bleep].
Here comes Dustin.
[Carlos] What's up, man?
[Dustin] Yeah.
[Carlos] Wanna come down with me?
- Yeah, dude. - You guys decided to go there
or not there, huh?
How come?
Why not there?
They got a crack in that wall right there.
[Dustin] Ooh.
That is so sketchy.
You just can't pull on these things straight out, man.
[Carlos] Yeah, yeah, I know.
[Dustin] But you did.
It's pulling out of the damn wall.
That's not gonna work. [bleep]
I don't care how much of this ground you gotta take out.
[Carlos] Okay. Clean it all up.
- Find me a damn spot, please. - [Carlos] Yup, got it.
[Dustin] I'm losing it on this, just...
We got enough time into it. Let's do it right now.
- [Carlos] All right. Got it. - Okay?
[Carlos] Got it.
[Dustin] Fully expecting
a skyline to be done,
completely done.
It looks like it was a fail.
It, uh, it's gonna pull out of the wall.
So if you drill in this way,
you can pull it straight out of this stuff.
None of this rock will hold it.
Its loose shale
will hold if you do it right,
but you have to place it right.
There's no two ways about it. And they failed on that.
They know better and they did it anyway.
[narrator] In this soft rock,
the bolts will not stay in place
if drilled in line with the skyline.
Carlos must place the bolts at 90 degrees
to prevent them from being ripped from the wall
under the 60,000 pounds of pulling force.
[Carlos] Ah!
Ah!
It's working!
Hey, the finest fricking somewhat viable piece
of fricking rock, man,
solid enough to hold the skyline.
It's like finding a fricking Easter egg, man.
I'm gonna come down there with you.
[Carlos] Oh, okay. Oh, you got saws off?
- Yeah. - [Carlos] Oh, awesome dude.
[James] We need to dig it out.
[Dustin] I wanna see that grate sitting there.
Without the skyline, if it floods,
we are in deep damn trouble.
Should have been easy to put up here.
I thought we were ahead.
Time's coming by and the way we're starting
to get real close to where we're not ahead anymore.
[Carlos] Oh, I think I might have found a good spot.
It's Slim Pickens, but this has to work.
Seems like solid rock.
[drill whirring]
[hammer tapping]
[James] Oh yeah, dude, that's gonna hold here.
[Carlos] Yeah, there you go.
Just tie it up to these chains right here.
Guarantee that's gonna hold.
Well, we're about to find out
if this is gonna hold or not.
[tense music playing]
- [Carlos] Okay. - [James] That's probably good enough for now.
[Carlos] Let see what you got here.
It'll hold. It'll hold.
[Dustin] Hey, it [bleep] looks good.
[James] It looks good to me.
[Carlos] It's all right, man.
[Dustin] It looks really good, Carlos.
Thank you, guys.
Let's get some damn gold.
The sooner the better.
Goal accomplished.
The skyline is up.
We're trying to get the dredge right now
so we can put it into water,
drag it up the creek.
Let's take all four of us and drive
this thing over to the creek.
Wes, so you're gonna go up,
set up a capstan by yourself.
Paul, can you roll up and go grab the rope?
- All right. - [Dustin] Let's spin it around.
[Paul] Get it over to the water?
Get it over to the water as close as we can.
Everybody.
That's good. That's good. We're good.
[narrator] From the trail end launch site,
the crew must use a capstan winch
to drag the 2000-pound dredge
350 feet up creek
across huge boulders
while battling powerful whitewater
to reach their new dive site.
[Dustin] All right. I think we're ready to pull.
Give it a shot.
[groans]
[James] Pull it!
[Dustin] All stop. All stop.
- [James] All stop. - [Dustin grunts]
[bleep].
[grunts]
I pulled too hard and I think it broke my [bleep] finger.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Dustin] Is there any way we can use this water
to get over there?
[James] I don't see why not.
A little bit. Keep going.
You gotta get to the other side of the creek.
[Paul] Actually, if he takes off that redirect up there now
it'll be a straight pull over that way.
[Carlos] Hey, it's a straight pull right there, James.
- [James] Oh, it is. It's a straight pull. - [Dustin] Keep going.
Keep going, keep going, keep going,
- keep going, keep going. - Oh, it's going, just keep on pulling.
[Dustin] It's going under water.
Pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull.
[suspenseful music playing]
- [Dustin] Pull over that way. - [Carlos] Hey, it's a straight pull
- right there, James. - [James] Oh, it is.
- [Carlos] It's a straight pull. - Keep going, keep going.
- Oh, it's going, just keep on pulling.
It's going under water.
Pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull.
[James] It's going underwater.
[narrator] At Nugget Creek,
Dustin and the crew fight
to save the dredge from being torn
apart by the raging whitewater.
[Dustin] Standby, standby, standby.
Can you pull that way, Carlos?
[Carlos] Yeah, you can pull it this way.
Let's get over this rock.
[Dustin] Hold on.
Almost. See if he can pull it.
See if you can pull it. See if you can pull it.
- Watch the swing! - [Carlos] I got... I got the swing.
I got the swing.
- [Dustin] Thank you. - [James] Yup.
Yeah.
- [Carlos] Woo-hoo! - [James] Best one ever.
[Dustin] Holy [bleep] that's a strong water right there.
[Paul] 50 more yards y'all.
50 more yards and we got it.
- [Dustin] All hands on. - [Carlos] Okay. Pull!
Come on, work.
- [James] There you go. - [Dustin] Watch that boulder.
- Watch that boulder. - [Carlos] I got... Hey!
[Paul] We're on the handle. We're on the handle.
[Carlos] I got the swing. I got the swing.
Watch that boulder!
Move it this way.
[James] Got it.
[groans]
[Carlos] Oh! Come on, work. Oh!
- [Dustin] Keep it coming this way. - [Carlos] Got it. Got it.
Almost there!
[Dustin] Great!
Let's pull.
[James] Come on.
[narrator] The dredge has reached
the dive site intact,
next, the ultimate test
for the skyline
as it attempts to lift
the 2000 pound dredge
clear of any raging flood water.
[Dustin] All right, hook it up.
- Come on. - [Wes] You're good out here.
- [Dustin] Good? - [Wes] Yeah.
[Paul] Lift the dredge.
Oh, man,
lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift.
[bleep].
- [Carlos] Yeah! [laughs] - [Paul] Hell yeah.
[Carlos] Woo! Woo! Woo!
[Paul] That's it.
- Not-- - [Carlos] Hold on.
- [Dustin] I like that. - [Carlos] Do your work!
- Yeah! - Swinging with the air.
[Paul] We got a flying dredge.
[Carlos] It looks like a big old pinata.
Woo!
I love it guys.
[Dustin] It's a great day.
We are moving at light speed
for us right now.
This is truly amazing for us.
We are getting things done.
Now, we need some gold to bag it up.
[dramatic music playing]
[upbeat music playing]
[Carlos] ♪ We're gonna Get gold today ♪
[narrator] In just two short weeks,
Dustin and his crew
have readied their dive site
and today, marks the start of mining operations.
[Dustin] Oh, yeah, baby.
Got much closer to dredging.
We're gonna start digging up here
and everything we've heard
is hard pack has gold in it.
Red dirt, gold.
So it's red dirt right here
about 3 feet down, 2 feet down.
We need a payday.
There it goes.
Here it goes.
Woo-hoo!
- [Paul] Oh, yeah! - That's well worth it.
[Wes] Perfect.
- [Paul] It is! - Right there.
Let's get some fuel.
Let's get everything primed.
[Paul] All right.
Ready?
[Dustin] Yeah.
[engine sputtering]
- [Carlos laughs] - [Paul] We got water.
It's working.
[Dustin] Let's start.
[Paul] This is really awesome.
[Dustin] Yeah.
[Paul] Woo-hoo!
We're dredging, fellas!
We're dredging!
Woo-hoo!
That's good, man.
- [Paul] Hell, yeah! - [Wes] Oh, man,
that looks good coming out of the box.
That dredge is dead for six months,
it started right up.
We're dredging. This is the fastest
we've ever dredged, well, ever.
- [Paul] You're right there. - [Dustin] You watched the red dirt?
- [Carlos] We just hit that red layer. - [Dustin] Red dirt.
- [Paul] What? - [Carlos] We hit that red layer.
- Did you see that? - You did?
Is the red coming through? Let's get that red.
[Carlos] [indistinct] going good.
Red dirt.
It's rusty. [bleep] yeah!
- [Carlos] That's it. - Yeah. It's coming out red.
[Dustin] Yeah!
- [Paul] Woo-hoo! - [Carlos] That's it.
[Paul] That's what we're looking for.
That's the color we're looking for.
[Carlos] We got some hard pack right here.
I gotta get in the water to find out, dude.
[Wes] Yeah.
If you wanna get in to dive, you're more than welcome.
Let's get in. Let's start doing this.
- [Dustin] Suit up then. Suit up. - [Carlos] Let's suit up.
Let's suit up.
Let's suit up to go diving.
Any time you put on the freaking mask, man,
you go in the water, man,
that's a serious game for me.
Go by the numbers,
work, safe,
think about what's important,
and make sure I go back home to what's important.
The gold is a bonus.
[narrator] Six weeks earlier than last season,
Dustin will put his first diver in the water.
[laughter]
[Carlos] That's where I put it down, that's good.
Thank you, sir.
[scuba hissing]
[Dustin] Carlos is digging like crazy,
I just wanna keep real good eyes on him.
A little paranoid the first couple times, man.
[Paul] Yeah, I know. I know what you mean.
Especially with him [bleep].
Yeah.
I mean, he's definitely got some depth going.
[Dustin] Yup.
But how deep do you think you are right now?
[Carlos] Yeah, man, I mean, it's 30 stuff dude.
I can barely see.
[scuba hissing]
[Carlos] My head is about 2 feet.
So what do you see, man? What do you see?
[scuba hissing]
[Carlos] It just drops off, man.
Just drops off to oblivion right here.
[Dustin] That's awesome. Keep going.
We're gonna find gold.
[Dustin] We got the land, we got the water control,
we are the digging team.
We can dig all kinda stuff.
But this creek is untouched for the most part.
And if all the stories are right,
we're gonna have a ton of gold here soon.
I can't wait for it to not be just stories anymore.
I need gold in hand.
[dramatic music playing]
[Dustin] Carlos is digging like crazy.
[Wes] And he's definitely got some depth going.
[Dustin] Yup.
[narrator] At Nugget Creek, Carlos is four hours
into the first dive of the season.
So what do you see, man? What do you see?
[scuba hissing]
[Carlos] It just drops off, man.
Just drops off to oblivion right here.
[dramatic music playing]
[Paul] Yeah, go vertical.
- [Wes] Woo-hoo! - [Paul] Yeah!
[Carlos] Trying to break in there.
[dramatic music playing]
Why don't you follow that for a little while,
see what we get down to, man.
[scuba hissing]
Just cleared it all out.
[narrator] The gold rich layer already in his sights,
Carlos attacks.
In one hand, the high pressure hose
to break up the hard pack.
In the other, the suction hose
to feed the gold catching dredge.
[Carlos] Yo, man, that's pressure washer
up the dredge, man. Holy crap.
I'm just keeping the nozzle one way
and I'm just blowing it towards the nozzle, you know.
Looks like that's working really good, too.
[scuba hissing]
[Carlos] Fred will be proud of me.
Just gotta brush it to the nozzle.
Oh, that's perfect, dude.
[laughs]
Eating all the hard pack up.
We got some good material coming over to the back.
Run all that red.
[Dustin] All right, Carlos.
Here's your final call.
[indistinct]
How'd it go down there?
[Carlos] Yeah, man. It's nice to be back in the water.
[Wes laughs]
Woo-hoo!
[laughs]
[bleep] gold nugget.
[Dustin] No way.
[Wes] I'm not [bleep] man.
[Carlos] We got a nugget?
- [Wes] We got a nugget. - There's a nugget.
I told you there was gold here.
- I told you. - [Wes] Yeah. [bleep].
Oh.
[laughs]
- [James] No way. - Woo!
- Look. - That's a gold nugget.
- [Wes] [bleep] yeah! - [Carlos] That's a gold nugget.
- [Wes] Yeah. - [Carlos] That's a gold.
- [James] [indistinct] - [Wes] Woo-hoo!
[James] Oh, my God! [bleep] yeah!
[Carlos] That's a gold nugget.
[laughs] [bleep] yeah.
Look at this.
[James] Oh, my God.
- That's a nugget. - [Paul] Yeah!
- Yeah, Carlos! - [Carlos] That's a gold nugget!
Woo-hoo! Yeah!
[Wes] We knew it!
- [Paul] Yeah. - [Wes] First gold ever this early!
Oh, my God!
[Wes] That was in the [bleep] nugget trap.
Let's check it, man. Turn it off.
- Let's check it. - Holy [bleep].
[laughs]
[Wes] Holy [bleep].
[Paul] Look right there. There's another one.
[James] It just seems like we're gonna be
big nuggets from here on out, man.
[Paul] Look at that mother [bleep].
[laughs] man.
[James] How much hard pack did you break up?
- [Paul] It's a small section. - It's a small pack, dude.
[Paul] That's what they said.
Everything is under that hard pack.
- Oh. - Dude.
[Dustin] Hey...
this is awesome.
It's not just stories anymore.
- [Paul] Nope. - This place is for real.
[Paul] Yup.
We were missing one major thing
and it was bunch of damn nuggets
sitting at the bottom.
Now we're not missing that anymore.
No. No, we're not.
Your protocol is perfect, man.
[Wes] Yeah!
[Carlos] Nugget Creek.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it is Nugget Creek.
This is gonna be a small nugget out here.
- [Carlos] These are for us. - [Wes] Oh, yeah.
[Carlos] Gold, gold, gold.
[Paul] We needed that so bad.
- Oh, my God. - Oh, my God.
- I can't believe that. - [Carlos] Look at that thing.
[chuckling]
Finally all this hard work is gonna pay off.
All the near-death incidents,
all the chances we take,
all the heartbreak and all the cheering.
Here we come.
This is our year.
[chuckles]
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] On the next Gold Rush White Water...
The possibilities are so full cup right now.
That's what's going on.
This place is dangerous, man.
[Carlos] He's doing it without a net.
- Whoa. - Gotta keep my guys safe.
- [Wes] Hey! - [Paul] Go, Wes.
- Run, run! - Whoa!
[Carlos] I don't know where to go, it's too shallow.
- No gold? - [Paul] I don't see
- a [bleep] speck. - [Dustin] Goddamn.
That's a lot of damn work just to no something.
[Paul] All that effort for nothing.
That's the end to this.
[tense music playing]