[heavy breathing under water]
[man] Are you kidding me?
[exclaims] You mother [bleep].
[man] Hey, James. What you seeing down there, man?
[James] I saw a nugget and I was gonna grab it with my hands.
But now it's clouded out.
Don't worry about having to pick them up by hand,
All you gotta do is just suck it up and get in there.
[James] I can actually see everything.
[Dustin] I've spent many years looking for this stuff.
I'd like to actually succeed and blow this all the way.
We get enough gold, it might just make it worth it.
Might just make it worth it.
[James] Oh... [laughs]
[Dustin] What's the laughing for?
[James] I see a nugget.
[Dustin] Is that gold?
- [James] Nugget. - [Dustin] Yeah!
- Pretty good when you can see 'em. - Holy crap!
- Look at that. Oh, my God. - [all laughs]
[Dustin] I'll be damned, man. Now, that's heavy.
That is coming!
He brought out a nugget, man, in his hands.
[Dustin] You're in a damn good spot right now, man.
[man] It's gonna be hard to get him out of the water today.
He's gonna wanna keep going after that gold.
[James] I'm a-digging fool...
He's about to hit a huge pocket.
[James laughs]
[Dustin] There we go.
You've got a couple of big rocks moving through there above your head.
[man] Holy [bleep].
[man] Hey, watch out. Back up, back up, back up, back up, back up.
- [man] Holy... - [Dustin] Yeah.
[Dustin] Hey, guys. I got some bad news.
Uh, Fred died.
[man] We've gotta push extra hard this year for him.
But he'd want us to work, right? [chuckles weakly]
[man] We need to find more gold.
Oh, my God!
Hey, look at that.
Big nuggets.
We got a future, dude.
If all the stories are true, that one ounce nugget is just the beginning.
[Dustin] Yee-haw.
[narrator] Dustin Hurt battles the wild circle river.
Desperate to get back on the hunt for gold,
at his remote nugget creek claim.
[man over radio] It's the longest break I've ever had out here. It's time to grind.
[narrator] Last week, Dustin made the 1,200 mile trek to Oregon.
[Fred] Well, hello there.
[narrator] To celebrate his father's 80th birthday.
I just wanna let you know that I'm glad that you guys have passed through my life.
And, hope you meet some people as nice as me.
[all laughs]
He made it to his 80th birthday party. That's a big deal.
So...
Time to get back to work.
Time to get digging, see what the guys are up to.
- [man] Sounds like Dustin's back. - [man 1] Dustin's back.
[Dustin] What's up, fellas?
- [man] How's it going? - It's going. I'm back.
- How's everything going around here, man? - [man] Not too bad.
We had our own adventures.
- [Dustin] Yeah? - Yeah, we did.
Let me show you what we pulled up.
James found like, a handful of gold.
Oh, man. You guys are doing it.
[narrator] They're a hot street gun cold.
And Dustin away, Wes took radical action to hunt down the gold.
Wes is trying out his new witching rods.
Maybe there's a bug nugget sitting there.
[Wes] You see that?
- Right here. - Right there?
- [man] Good, man. - [Wes] Oh, yeah.
[exclaims] Good job, amigo.
- Fist full of nugget. - That makes me happy.
- [Dustin] It's looking good, man. - Yeah, it's a start.
[Carlos] Wes used some devil sticks, man.
Hocus pocus, hocus pocus, and...
[Dustin] You used the dowsing rods?
[Wes] Y'all weren't supposed to tell him we used the dowsing rods.
That was gonna be a secret. He was never gonna know this.
[Dustin] Nah, he already admitted it. You can't take it back now.
[man] How's Fred doing, man? How's his party?
Um...
He enjoyed it. He was a little out of it. He's going.
He's on his way out, man.
So that's gonna happen.
- [Carlos] I'm sorry, man. - Very, very soon.
[Carlos] Yeah. That's a tough one, man.
Anyway, thank you guys for stepping it up and keep on working.
I appreciate the hell out of it.
It was unavoidable.
Nah. It worked out, man. Everybody vibed with each other.
You know, like we usually do.
[Dustin] Let's go check out the site. I'd like to see what y'all got done.
Where y'all are heading, and get back at it.
- Yep. - All right.
- [Carlos] Yeah. Let's do it. - Awesome.
[Carlos] I can only imagine how it's weighing on Dustin, right now.
I mean, he doesn't wear his feelings on his sleeves or anything like that.
But clearly...
it's the same inside, man.
That freaking sucks.
I am glad he got to go down there and spend some time with Fred.
That's... That's his father.
He hasn't lost any of his parents yet. So, this is all new on him.
[narrator] But Fred's health isn't Dustin's only concern.
Nearly halfway through the season,
the crew has yet to find enough gold
to fund a future at nugget creek.
This is a lot of rock we moved. I'm impressed, guys.
All right. So where did the gold come from?
I think that line of gold was coming through right in here.
'Cause this is where James go into it.
- And same with Carlos. - [Dustin] I get it.
- So, there is a consistent line... - [man] Yes.
that we need to follow.
And it's got gold in it.
Wherever it goes, that's where we go from now on.
- Yep. - Good job, guys on working this out, while I wasn't here.
I should take off more often is what I'm hearing, so y'all can do better.
[all laughs]
No, you got important things you gotta deal with and...
- Well, we wanna find a lot of gold too. - Yep.
All right, Carlos. You're in the water. Let's go get your gear.
[Carlos] You tell me where to dig, I dig.
[narrator] Carlos will move up creek and dredge down the bedrock,
in search of the next pocket of nuggets.
I'm gonna try to get to bedrock as quick as I can.
And I want gold. I want that nugget.
[Paul] Hey, James, can you submerge that pipe?
[Dustin] Get it, James.
[James] That working good?
[Dustin] [bleep] is going on with that boat?
Something's really wrong.
- [Wes] The sluice box is sitting on the rocks. - [Dustin] Yeah.
- It's sitting on the bottom. - It's sitting on the bottom.
[Wes] The water's dropped a lot.
[Dustin] Can we suck the water down?
[Wes] That's got some big pumps.
Let's make it right.
[Carlos] We need more water.
We're running into a weird problem that...
we're not putting in as much water as we're taking out.
The dredge has to have enough water to flow.
And we're having problems with that right now.
We just need to keep it at the right angle.
So we don't wash any gold out.
[narrator] The water in the dive pond is so low
the dredge is grounded.
The sluice box is horizontal.
If they run the dredge, the riffles will pack up with gravel.
And gold will flow off the end.
Raising the water level will float the dredge.
Putting the four foot long sluice at the optimal five degree angle,
to catch gold in the few riffles.
So what's happening is we gotta open this up,
just to keep our water level up, so the dredge will keep floating.
And keep the angle of the sluice box right.
[Dustin] Enough? Not enough?
[Paul] No. It'll take a minute to fill back up.
[Dustin] I've never had a problem with not enough water before.
This is my first time.
It's always the extreme opposite of this.
Which is, way too much water.
[Paul] We got flow coming in now.
[Dustin] Holy [bleep]. That's a lot of water.
[Paul] It takes a lot of water.
It's crazy, right?
Water management is key.
Our dredge need to be floating, and now it's finally floating.
[Dustin] Always something though.
We can't just show up and go to work. That would be silly.
First you have to break and fix something.
All right. Let's see what you got. You copy?
[Carlos] Let's go. Okay.
[Dustin] Let's get some gold.
[Carlos] Bingo. Life-changing gold.
[Dustin] Last year, I went into debt. This year I need to find gold.
And lots of it.
[Paul] We should see some gold in the box this afternoon.
[James] We should.
[Dustin] Looks like you're getting at some real material, right?
[Carlos] Nah. It's just [bleep].
That's nothing.
As I'm trying to go down, you know, all the kitty litter is coming right down on me.
[Dustin] That white water's just dumping buckets of kitty litter.
And it filled the damn hole right back in.
You can see right here. This is what we call kitty litter.
It's just pumping it in.
Oh, [bleep].
[man] Hey, watch out. Back up, back up, back up, back up, back up.
[Dustin] Holy [bleep].
That would have been a bad one.
[man] Sorry, sorry, sorry. We pulled on you a little bit.
It dropped about six rocks, man.
[Carlos] Holy [bleep].
[narrator] The extra water they needed to fill their dive hole
is now raining rocks directly on to Carlos.
- [Carlos] Right in my wall. - And weakening their weir wall.
[Carlos] A lot of handfuls of rocks, man.
[Dustin] We might have to punch a couple of holes right here.
That's perfect. Because I thought if we let water come in from here,
from the down side,
we won't bring as much kitty litter in.
[Dustin] Let's do that, all right.
[narrator] To stop the rocks crashing down onto the diver,
the crew must reduce the flow from above.
And open a side channel, down by the dredge.
[Wes] I bet we can flip that rock over right there and probably do a lot.
There you go.
That's quite a bit more. That should help.
[Dustin] Good job, guys.
How's it looking down there?
Same thing matches. I'm out of overburden.
I'm just caring not to, uh, try to hit the bedrock.
[Dustin] I think where he's at is gonna be good.
- [Paul] So he should find gold right in there. - [Dustin] I agree.
- How we living, Carlos? - [Carlos] Oh, it's going good, man.
I'm not gonna go any further.
[Dustin] Just give 'em a good, clean area today.
- [Carlos] Yeah, that's it. - Yeah.
- Just some overburden and we'll be done with it. - Yeah. Absolutely.
[narrator] After a five-hour battle,
Carlos has the dive hole at four feet.
But is yet to reach bedrock.
[Paul] All right. Let's get the diver up.
Here we go.
[Paul] He never got into any material that look like it'll have any gold in it today.
- To be honest. - [Wes] Yeah.
[Paul] This is all overburden, all day.
It was a no-gold day.
I don't like no-gold days.
But, we got a lot of dirt moved.
Lots, lots, lots of overburden.
But that's no problem, man. All that is, is just a...
a stepping stone to the gold.
[Wes] It's got a lot of damn pyrite, though.
[Paul] That means he's getting close though.
Uh, dredge didn't wanna float.
And it was tilting the wrong way.
The sluice box was the wrong way.
It was a lot of stuff going on.
[Paul] Hey. I just found gold at the back of the sluice box.
- [Dustin] What? Back there? - Yeah
- [Dustin] Back there? - Yeah.
- [James] Are you serious? - Yeah.
[Carlos] We can be losing freaking gold.
[narrator] A nugget at the bottom of the sluice...
is a miner's worst nightmare.
The angle is still wrong.
And could be blowing precious gold, down the creek.
[Paul] It was way right back in here.
That's the last place you wanna see a nugget.
They're supposed to stay in the nugget trap.
[James] Why are they back there?
Well, that's kind of scary.
[Paul] First time I've never seen anything back here.
[Wes] It shouldn't be that far back.
[Carlos] That's scary.
[Paul] We need to check the dredge out.
And make sure the sluice box is sitting right.
So we don't lose any gold.
- [Dustin] Mornin', fellas. - [all] Mornin'.
- [Dustin] We gotta come up with a plan. - Yeah.
We just can't afford to lose any gold.
[narrator] At Nugget Creek,
the crew discovered a nugget at the bottom of their sluice,
a sign they could be losing precious gold.
We need to make sure there's enough water in the digging area
and the sluice box is at the right angle.
- Yup. - [Dustin] We'll figure this out. But right now,
getting a little bit behind with gold levels
because putting a lot of gasoline out there, but, and a lot of effort.
[James] I'm pretty sure we'll be back on the gold
- the day after all that overburden Carlos took out. - [Paul] Yeah.
- We're moving through it quick. - [Dustin] We're moving.
We have to succeed this year.
We need a bucket of gold.
We don't want a bucket of gold.
We need a bucket of gold to continue on.
[James] We need to be seeing at least an ounce or two
in the box at the end of the day.
- [Dustin] Yeah. - [James] At least.
There you go.
- All right. - [man 1] Yup.
- [Dustin] Let's go dig, y'all. - [Carlos] Go dig.
[man 2] Sound like a plan.
Grab all my dive stuff.
[Dustin] We need real gold,
and, uh, nobody's getting it yet.
Hopefully today is that day that we can make some progress.
Like, life-altering gold is what we're looking for now.
[yawning]
I didn't sleep well, man.
Too much stress.
It was rough day.
Everybody, get suited up.
Let's get the angle on the sluice box perfect.
Well, yesterday we were having big problems with the sluice box.
Paul found a nugget all the way at the bottom,
which we don't wanna see.
We wanna keep our gold up at the top.
- Found this in the water? - [Paul] Yeah.
[man 3] Come this way with the boat.
[Dustin] How's that?
Well, it looks like that's the right angle.
[Wes] Yup, it's working now.
- [Carlos] That looks good. - [Wes] It looks pretty good, right?
Whoo. It's looking so much better and everything's flowing good.
I don't think we're gonna lose any gold out of the bottom.
[Dustin] Please, let us find some gold today.
I'd love to take this hole down to six or eight feet today.
Six, eight.
That's a lot.
- [Paul] Yeah. - I know I'm asking a lot,
but I need to know where this gold is.
[Paul] Yup. No, I gotcha.
So far, the plan's gonna be
try to hit bedrock.
Carlos spent his entire dive trying to get the hole cleaned back out.
Now, I should be able to go in,
find the bedrock bottom,
and see if we can get back on the gold.
[Dustin] And those rocks are gonna wanna roll.
You might wanna go over there and kick some rocks
- and make sure they fall down. - [Carlos] Yeah, dude.
[narrator] Rocks above the dive hole
still presented deadly threat.
Head start, man. Paving the way.
- [Paul over radio] Good to go? - [Dustin] Have a good dive. Find some gold.
[Paul] Copy that.
- [Dustin over radio] How you doing, Paul? - [air hissing]
[Paul] Little bit of... [indistinct] ...to get out,
but I soon will be able to get to this pretty quick.
I'll find some gold!
[Dustin] Did you say you're cold now?
[Paul] No, I said, "I'll find some gold."
[Dustin] Gold, gold, sorry.
- All right. - [Paul] Ice-cold gold.
[Carlos] That's what we need.
We're just blasting through this stuff.
That's super motivating.
[Paul] Ah, you [bleeping]!
I have no suction.
[Dustin over radio] What, you have a stop up?
[Paul] Oh, I hear the nozzle.
You gotta feed it very easy.
There's no ways about it.
Rookie mistake.
You get impatient, man, 'cause we want the bottom.
We want the gold that's at the bottom.
[Paul] The filth's getting out. Yeah, it was in the nozzle.
I got another stop up.
It's not in the nozzle.
[Dustin over radio] Lift it up a little bit and I can see into it.
[narrator] In Paul's desperation to get down to the gold,
he sucked up a large rock.
Causing a second jam in just five minutes.
[Dustin] Ah, I think it's on this bend.
It's right here.
[Carlos] There it goes!
- [Dustin] Ready. - [Paul] Yeah.
[James] There it goes.
[Paul] Sorry about that, guys.
[Carlos] You get impatient and you just want this thing
to eat, eat, eat, eat, eat.
You don't have the time to freaking filter out the big rocks,
that goes into the nozzle.
When that happens,
gluga, gluga, hit it!
And then, boom!
Plug up again.
[Paul] I got another plug up somewhere.
Just somewhere back here.
[James] Yeah, there it is. I found it.
That's bad. Man.
He's in there.
That's a son of a gun.
- Yeah, that's... - That's really wedged in there. You can see it.
It's about to blow through the [bleep] hose if I hit it too many times.
[narrator] If Dustin breaks the hose,
they could be shut down for days
until they can get a replacement.
It's stabbin'.
Right here.
- I can see it perfectly. - [James] Yeah.
That's a mother[bleep], dude.
- Watch your knee. - Yup.
[grunts] Ah!
That's it. It went.
Jesus.
[cheering]
- [Paul] We good? - [Dustin over radio] Yeah.
Maybe slow down a little bit once you dig.
[Paul] Copy that.
[narrator] Paul slows his pace.
[Paul] It's getting deeper and deeper.
[narrator] And makes better progress.
[man 4] How's he doing? He's still going down?
- [Dustin] Yup. - [Carlos] Right now, his whole body's under the water.
I think he's getting really, really deep.
[narrator] Over the next three hours,
Paul puts in a hard shift
to get the dive hole over six feet deep.
[Paul] It's still going down.
He's down there, man.
He's down deep enough, we should be seeing gold.
[Dustin over radio] How you doing, Paul?
[Paul's voice cutting] Good, yeah.
- [disturbance over radio] - [Dustin] Man, what's going on?
[high-pitched whining]
[Carlos over radio] Paul? Paul? Paul?
Hey, Dustin, we lost comms with Paul.
- Paul, you got a copy? - [intermittent hissing]
[air hissing]
[Carlos] I can hear him.
The only problem right now with the comms is
we can't talk to the diver.
There's no updates 'cause he doesn't talk unless you can talk to him.
Whatever he's in, my comm's been cut off
with Paul right now, and I don't know...
I can't make him talk. He's getting down there, though.
Can't even see him anymore.
[Carlos] That's a huge boulder right there. So that's a big one.
[static over radio]
[Carlos] It's getting undercut on that corner.
That's freaking me out, man.
[Dustin] Carlos, what you got on comms, man?
- [static] - Paul? Paul?
[air hissing]
[James] That's just getting too dangerous.
[Dustin] I think I'mma pull him out.
[Carlos] Paul? Paul? Paul?
[air hissing]
[narrator] Six feet below the surface,
Paul has no comms.
Got a freaking boulder right here, dude.
That looks a little bit unstable.
[narrator] The crew is unable to warn him of the unstable rock above.
[Dustin] Hey, Paul, you got a copy?
[air hissing]
[Carlos] I can hear him.
[James] Yeah, he can't hear us, huh?
[indistinct chatter over radio]
[static, Paul's voice scrambling over radio]
[Paul's voice scrambling over radio]
[Dustin] What's he sayin'?
Anybody, uh, get a copy on that?
- Paul? Paul? Paul? - [air hissing]
Whoo!
- [Dustin] Can you hear me? - [Paul] Just what you're saying outside.
[Dustin loudly] I'm telling you, "Watch out for this."
Don't let it fall on your head.
[Paul] Don't worry about it.
There's two or three boulders underneath that one.
[Dustin] Okay.
What you seeing down there?
- [hissing] - [Paul] There's bedrock over here.
And there's another wall right here going this way.
- [Dustin] Holy [bleep]! - [Paul] So, it's gotta be the...
- [Dustin] The middle. - [Paul] It's gotta be the middle.
Damn! We found the middle.
[Carlos] Well, how does he know it's the middle?
There's bedrock coming up that way,
bedrock coming up this way.
[narrator] Following the gold line,
Paul's uncovered a bedrock slope
on both sides of the creek.
If he can remove the remaining rocks and gravel
and get down to the bottom,
he could hit the mother lode.
That equals nuggets.
[Paul] Hopefully.
Right there, apparently, is the center of the creek.
That's pretty wild.
There's gonna be gold in the bedrock.
It's usually in the very center.
Now we're gonna follow that... [indistinct]
[narrator] Paul takes the ultimate risk.
Diving without comms to hunt for a massive payday.
If I have to pull him, I'll pull him.
[Paul] That's getting deeper and deeper.
We seem to have a deep channel going right up the middle.
That's the spot we've been looking for,
so we gotta follow it now and collect the gold that's sitting in it.
[James] Oh, look at that.
Black.
That's crazy.
[Carlos] This color that's coming out of there,
- I've never seen that before. - [man 5] Yeah.
[Dustin] Wash it through the dredge.
Wash it all through the dredge!
[Paul] Can I get the water sprayer?
[Dustin over radio] Well, that's a good sign.
[Paul] Thank you, sir.
He needs a sprayer to loosen it, where all the nuggets are.
Wow.
He is just a diggin' fool today.
Holy smokes.
- [Paul grunts] Ah. - [Dustin] I think he's getting tired, though.
[Paul grunts] Ah, yeah.
[air hissing]
I think I'm gonna go ahead and call it.
All right, let's call it a day.
- Float the nozzle! - Here it comes.
[Dustin] That's a long run.
[narrator] After six hours,
Paul has the hole down eight feet.
But, they have yet to reach the gold-rich bedrock bottom.
[grunts] Ah. Good, job, Paul!
[Dustin] There has to be something in the box.
Hopefully.
Sorry, we couldn't talk to you. We lost all comms, man.
[James cheerily] Hey, Paul!
- [Dustin] Got gold, buddy. - [Paul cheers] Yeah!
- [laughing] - You got it, dude!
- You go check it out. - [James] Good job, dude!
Good job! I'm not touching it. You can come look at it.
[Paul] Whoo!
- [Paul] Oh, yeah! - [James laughs]
- There's one there too. - [Paul] Ooh, there's one right here!
[James] Yeah, that's a biggun.
[Carlos] That's a good nugget, dude. That's a good-size nugget.
[James] Oh, there's one up there.
[Wes] They're all staying up in the top.
Seems like it's working pretty good.
[Dustin] What are we talking about?
All right.
Jeez, that might even be another half ounce.
We're getting there.
[Paul] There's gotta be more in the box.
Wow.
Gah, we're back on it again!
[Carlos] Yeah, we're back on the gold, Paul! Good job, man!
Today, Paul found a bunch of gold.
It looked like about a half ounce of pickers.
It was a good dive,
but we need to find more gold.
[Paul] There's another piece up in there.
[Dustin] The most important thing about today is
we think that Paul found
the center of the bottom of the bedrock.
And, uh, that's a big deal. Now we can follow it.
If you're gonna find gold, usually it's in the deepest part.
- [James] You killed it today, bro. - [Paul] Thank you.
- [James] That's cool. - [Paul] Everybody did, man. It's a team effort here.
- [James] Yeah. - [Carlos] We're back on the gold.
Paul, man! He freaking literally dug to the center of the Earth, practically.
[man 6] There's a piece.
Heck, yeah, man. We're back on the gold.
- [gold clanking] - [Paul] That's a sweet sound.
[gold rattling in bottle]
[singing] ♪ Gettin' excited
Tomorrow should be a huge day for us.
- [Dustin] Mornin', fellas. - [all] Mornin'.
[Dustin] You guys, uh, I have some bad news.
Um, I got a message
this morning that, uh, Fred died.
[Dustin sniffles, whispers] That's rough.
[Paul] Gah, dang.
[Wes] I'm sorry, man.
- [Dustin] Morning, fellas. - [all] Morning.
[Dustin] Hey, guys, uh, I got some bad news.
Um, I got a message...
this morning that, uh, Fred died.
So, uh...
Yeah, so, he didn't make it and cancer got him, finally.
[breathes shakily]
He said wasn't in any pain...
and he went peaceful in his sleep, so,
- Fred's gone and, uh... Yeah, yeah, yeah. - [Paul] I'm so sorry, man.
- [Carlos] I'm sorry. - [James] Sorry.
[Wes] Had a lot of good times with Fred.
Lot of good times. Lot of tough times.
[exhales]
[Paul] I know. I think many times
how different life would've been
if we would've never met him at that gold and treasure show.
- We wouldn't be up here right now. - [Wes] Mmm-hmm.
Nope. Not at all.
That's a tough one, man.
I got to say my goodbyes and I got no qualms with it.
He was fine to go, we had a long talk about it.
Anyway, uh...
probably gonna be a hard week for me.
So, you guys just...
try to be patient with me.
Just lost my father.
- It's gonna be tough for all of us. - [Dustin] That is a tough one.
I got some mixed emotions for it 'cause he was suffering pretty bad with cancer.
He was starting to lose his legs,
which he hated me to see.
And his cognitive abilities were going away which
he really, really was upset about.
So, it's probably best that went before he lost...
the ability to speak and all that stuff.
So... [sighs]
- I know that's a tough one, man. - [Dustin clears throat]
- Yeah, no, we owe him for being out here, right? - [Paul] Yeah, we do.
[Dustin] He brought us on this, first part of this freaky weird adventure.
[Fred] Double the dredges, double the Hurt.
[Dustin] He connected us...
[Paul] Check that out, Fred.
[Fred] That's a nice piece of gold there.
[Dustin] He was definitely the catalyst that got us all together.
[voice shaking] He got us started on all this stuff, man.
[Fred] Right here is where you were digging. Right here.
[Dustin] Changed the course of our lives...
Hey, y'all get down there and find that pile of leprechaun gold that I didn't get.
[chuckling]
[exhales sharply]
[Dustin] We can thank him for this adventure.
We continued it but he started it.
Yup, absolutely.
Makes me feel pretty damn good.
Yee-haw!
If Fred was alive still, he'd, uh,
- he'd say, "Get back to work," so... - [Wes] Yeah.
...He was always a hard-ass.
He was a hard-ass to work with but, away from work...
he was a totally different person.
- He'd give you the shirt off his back. - [Dustin] Yeah.
Fred truly believed... truly believed that...
your job after you die is to help your loved ones.
That's what he believed. And, uh,
he loved us, so...
- [Wes] I hope so. - [Paul] Oh, man.
[Wes] We've gotta push extra hard this year for him.
Yeah, he'd want us to work, right? Like...
- [James] That's true. - [Paul] We're gonna... we're gonna miss him for sure.
You know.
Here we go.
[exclaiming]
All right. That's too much. [exhales sharply]
We all know what he's going through right now.
[Wes] It's no fun losing a loved one.
- [Paul] Definitely not easy. - Nope.
That's for sure. [chuckles softly]
[sniffles] That is not easy at all.
I look back on my life as, uh, definitely well lived.
- [Dustin] Hey, Fred. - [Fred] You all right?
Years ago, I could've just retired. Uh-uh.
[exclaiming]
What the hell do you wanna retire for when you're still enjoying life?
Yes! [exclaims]
Find something you really enjoy doing.
Go out and search for that adventure.
At the end of your time you can say,
"Yeah, I had a good time."
Was a hell of a ride. 80 years.
[chuckling]
[Paul] Dustin just informed us that Fred had passed away from stage 4 brain cancer.
It was pretty rough. I mean, you know, Wes and I lost our dad a few years back.
That's not a easy thing to go through.
So, I know, I know where Dustin is right now. It's...
It eats on ya.
Yeah, the crew is a little down and out and
really hurting us all.
But I think Fred would love to see us succeed.
I'm hoping that, uh, I can make it happen.
Get some gold in honor of Fred.
Dustin needs this most of all, out of all of us.
Can you hear me, James? You can't hear me?
[Dustin] This is [bleep] awful, dude. I hate this comms system.
I [bleep] hate this comms system.
Sorry. Sorry. I got a lot on my mind.
[Wes] Yeah, there's gotta be something simple.
- [static] - [Wes over radio] Testing. One, two.
[James] Gotcha. What'd you do?
[Wes] There's a little mic button on the side of the box.
[James] Oh.
I pushed that button and it's working
but we might be actually pushing that button and turning it off.
- Oh. - [James chuckles]
[James breathing]
[Carlos over radio] As Dustin would say, "Don't get hurt. Don't die."
[Paul over radio] Well, this is it. Make or break.
For you, Fred. [indistinct]
[narrator] The crew have dedicated the remainder of their season
to their friend and mentor, "Dakota" Fred Hurt.
[Carlos] This dive's for you, amigo.
[James over radio] So awesome that I can talk to you guys and you can talk to me.
- [Wes] We got this figured out now. - [James] Yeah.
- See if we can get some gold. - [Wes] Yup.
That'll make Dustin happy.
[Carlos] Hey, James, uh, how does the chicken dinner situation look like, man?
[James] I'm eating through it...
and I got... I've got vis. I can see everything.
And I'm so comfortable right now.
[narrator] James' mission...
clean out the remaining gravel and nuggets
from the deepest part of the creek.
Wow. I'm following bedrock.
I gotta clean the top of the bedrock here
and then see how deep it is right here.
[Dustin] All right.
I've spent many years looking for this stuff.
I'd like to, actually, succeed and blow this all away.
We get enough gold it might just make it worth it.
Might just make it worth it.
[James] I'm gonna hit some material.
Yeah, buddy.
It's crazy, uh, I'm following a hole in the bedrock.
I don't know if this is the same hole that you were in there, Paul,
it's going straight down in the middle.
- [Paul] That's it. - [James] That's the same one?
[Paul] Yeah. That's where I was at yesterday.
That's probably where that gold came from.
Just keep digging.
[James] Are you kidding me? Ah, you mother [bleep].
[Dustin] Hey, James, what you seeing down there, man?
[James] I saw a nugget and I was gonna grab it with my hands
but now it's clouded out.
Don't worry about having to pick them up by hand,
but please get 'em in the dredge.
[James] Yup. See if I can find it.
This morning, I kinda asked Fred for help
to lead us where the gold is and
I know he's helping us out. He's always been there to help us.
He's still helping us.
[James] I can actually see everything.
[Paul] Thank you, Fred.
[James exclaims, laughs]
[Dustin] What's the laughing for?
[James] I see a nugget.
- [Dustin] Is that gold? - [James] Nugget.
[Carlos cheers]
[James] Pretty good when you can see 'em.
[Carlos] Holy crap!
Look at that! Oh, my God.
I'll be damned, man. Now, that is heavy.
That is heavy!
He brought out a nugget, man.
- [Dustin] That was a heavy nugget. - That was a heavy nugget.
[Dustin over radio] Keep going, man.
You ain't gonna wanna stop. You're gonna keep going after that gold.
[James laughs]
[in sing-song voice] I'm a digging fool.
[James] You're in a damn good spot right now, man.
[James] All right!
He's about to hit a huge spot.
[James] I'll just let it go like that for a while.
[narrator] In just two hours, James has got down to ten feet
and dredged everything off bedrock.
[James] Yeah.
- Here, I just cleaned this whole thing out. - [Dustin] Okay.
He's looking in the box right now.
Nice [bleep] nuggets, man.
[Paul] Oh... Oh, my God!
[Dustin] Oh, my.
[all exclaiming]
[Dustin] It's actually happening.
Good job, James!
What is that? What is that?
- Oh, my God! Woo-hoo! - [Paul] [bleep].
[Wes] Look at that nugget!
Get over here, James!
That's at least a one ounce nugget.
- Holy smokes! - [Wes] Dude, that's at least a one ounce nugget.
[narrator] That one ounce...
This matches the biggest nugget the crew has ever found.
Congratulations, James.
[narrator] But this time there's more...
[Dustin] At least five ounces.
...Five ounces of jewelry-grade nugget
is worth over $15,000.
Their most successful dive, ever.
I hit the jackpot today. Big nuggets!
[Wes] That is ridiculous.
Holy smokes, dude! Nugget creek has lived up to its name.
We're on it.
It's pretty amazing.
[Carlos] This is museum piece, man.
My first thought was to call and tell Fred.
[chuckles]
[Paul] You know, we've been working with Fred and Dustin
for over the past ten years and...
maybe from above, he's helping us out.
But what an amazing day.
I wish he was here to be a part of this,
I know he is in our heart but
finally, we're on the gold, you know.
I wish Fred was here with us but...
he can't do that.
[exclaiming]
There's been a few things going on in my life that aren't great...
This is great.
I can tell you I needed a win and this is a good win for me,
so, I needed this.
You know what that means? We got a future, dude.
[James exclaiming]
[in sing-song voice] Nuggets, nuggets, nuggets, nuggets, nuggets, nuggets, nuggets.
[Dustin] If all the stories are true,
that one ounce nugget is just the beginning.
[narrator] On the next Gold Rush: White Water...
All right, brother. Good luck, man.
Watch it, watch it, watch it, watch it.
[James] It's gonna [bleep] fall in, man.
I don't wanna dive in that. [bleep] kidding me? That [bleep] unstable.
We have a hard compulsion to know what's at the bottom of this hole.
You can't cure that.
[exclaiming]
[Paul] Okay, okay, okay, okay.
That's the biggest nugget in Gold Rush history right there.