Original subtitles

Hey Dustin, so what are you seeing right now, man?

I'm about few inches past right now.

[narrator] Winter is closing in on Nugget Creek.

Dustin Hurt battles conditions few divers would risk,

in an attempt to save his season.

[Dustin] What the [bleep]?

I'm through.

What's going on with my suction?

Water looks good from this side. Uh, I hope we didn't break it again.

I feel cursed here.

This can't be. It's not happening, man.

- This creek hates Dustin man. - It does. It absolutely does.

[Dustin] Kinda wonder if shouldn't just [bleep] call it.

It's not Dustin's day for a dive.

You wanna call it?

This is freakin' unbelievable.

I'm exhausted.

We've been working so hard, our bodies are starting to give out on us.

You've got to be kidding me.

Yep, that's gold! Holy [bleep], there's gold there.

- What the hell? - Gold, gold.

- Oh my [bleep]. - Holy moly.

Ooh, doggie!

- Look at that. - Awesome.

[man] Holy [bleep] man.

[Dustin] This might turn around for us.

- Wow look at that. - [everyone laughing]

[Dustin] We got a giant boulder hanging over our head.

It's terrifying.

Here's that current.

- Oh, shoot. - Justin.

- Stop. [bleep] - Oh [bleep].

We're getting all flooded right now, but we're gonna dredge anyway.

We're gonna push it to the limits now.

Better not be feeling bad and you're just gonna tell me you feel okay.

I'll yank you out of the water.

- I'm seeing gold, guys. [laughs] - Yeah.

[everyone cheering]

I knew there was gold in here.

- We got gold! - [everyone] Yeah!

[bleep] Right, man! Hell yeah.

So, it rained all yesterday. It never let up.

- All night. - All night.

And now it's raining harder, this morning.

[narrator] Dustin has invested everything he has in Nugget Creek.

But three quarters of the way through this season

with snow already falling on the mountains above,

he's still struggling to find gold

on what could be Alaska's toughest claim.

We're still gonna get ready for a dive.

See if we can get that done.

Absolutely.

- We could be getting close to the bottom. - That's true.

If this creek is only 7 to 12 feet deep

we might only have another two feet to go.

We're so close to being right there.

- Well, every time it floods it changes the whole... - It changes completely.

- ...features of that spot. - Yeah.

If we don't have that again, we shouldn't have an issue.

So we'll go out, assess the situation, then we'll figure it out.

Let's go see if we can get in the water.

[narrator] Time is running out

and there's almost no gold to show for their work.

Let's go see what it looks like up there.

[narrator] Both crews need to get diving, whatever the conditions.

[Kayla] We don't have that much time left.

We need to start seeing some progress.

I don't know how this rain is gonna act the rest of the day

- and if the water is gonna come up more, but... - Yeah.

...a little work is better than no work.

[narrator] It's not just the weather Kayla's crew will be battling.

You know what, let's have it out. You wanna use your own [bleep],

- use your own [bleep]. - How about you [bleep] go back to camp.

[bleep] Work my ass off.

[narrator] A week ago,

tension between Kayla and three season veteran Scott proved too much.

It's time.

[Scott] Time for me to go home.

So we'll get that dredge fired up

- to get you in the water. - Okay.

[narrator] Down to a crew of three and in brutal conditions,

Kayla is forced to use a single dredge.

Newest recruit Justin is diving, and once again in the spotlight.

End of season coming, the pressure is on for all us to find the gold.

But, you know,

we got to work through this.

I just want to do the best I can for everyone here.

We're a man down now.

It's only the three of us and it's kinda my time to shine.

This is probably the longest stint I've worked this hard for

and not seen anything quite yet.

Since we're down up here remember now,

everybody has to step it up including Justin.

He's gonna have to learn a lot quicker than he has been learning.

Because we still have to get just as much work done with less people.

- All right, how does that feel? - Feels good.

- Then I think you're good to go. - All right.

All right.

All right.

How is it looking down there?

[Justin] I'm in the current so I can't see diddly squat here.

The rain has got everything a little bit screwed up right now.

But since we've still got a lot of material, we're gonna make some headway.

[Justin] All right, let's get into it.

I wanna make some progress.

[narrator] On their last dive Kayla's crew got down to seven feet deep.

Battling the current, Justin needs to remove the rocks

that have been swept into the hole then push on down through the last three feet

towards bedrock gold.

I'm starting to find some good-sized pieces.

You want the basket?

Yeah, if we can get a few more feet this way.

[grunts] Got that one good.

- Sounds like he has water in his mask. - It does.

You got a bit of water in your mask?

[Justin] Yeah, I caught that current.

[Kayla] Okay, you gotta tell us these things.

Try not get your back to the water, that lifts your mask out.

Head on.

Just take some real hard breaths out and it should clear it.

[Kayla] There are still a few hiccups that we have to get past with him.

I can definitely tell that he doesn't as much fast water experience

as Paul or I have.

- [Justin breathing heavy] - [Kayla] How's your air?

[Justin] The air is getting kinda slow. It takes a bit of a pull to get in.

[Kayla] You look really red. You look like a tomato.

- I'm like a tomato? - Yeah, you're red.

Feeling all right?

I feel all right.

Are you sure? You look like you got sunburnt super bad.

[narrator] Justin's red face might be from fighting the fierce current.

Or he could be suffering from the early stages of hypoxia,

or lack of oxygen.

[Kayla] You better not be feeling bad and you're just gonna play it off

and tell me you feel okay.

- No, I'm not. - I'll yank you out of the water.

[narrator] Hypoxia can cause confusion and poor coordination.

If prolonged it can lead to brain damage or death.

[Paul] Your face is just about as red as your dive suit.

- [Justin] Really? - [Paul] Yeah.

I have to pull really hard.

- You need me to adjust your air? - I, maybe.

Now you guys got me all concerned.

Luckily we have a little valve inside the regulator that we can adjust,

give him a little bit more air.

- How does that? Take a breath. - [Justin breathes deep]

About the same.

Really? I've got it opened up pretty good right now.

[Paul] Unless our pop-off valve is starting to go bad.

I think our pop-off valve is no good, that's not much pressure.

When that pop-off valve wears out

it becomes a lot lighter so it'll let the air come out

without building up the proper pressure that we need

and I think that's what our issue is.

[narrator] The pop-off valve is part of the compressor on the dredge

which supplies air to the diver.

The spring in the pop-off valve is only meant to open

when the pressure in the diver's air tank exceeds 50 PSI.

But it's been opening at a far lower pressure.

Meaning there's almost no air in the tank for Justin to breathe.

So, at that low pressure

you take a few deep breaths, well you've already expended

all the air that the compressor has made.

[narrator] Paul switches out the valve.

[Paul] How does that feel?

- [Paul] That feel easier on the breath? - [Justin laughs] Yeah.

That was our problem.

That sounds so much better already.

All right, I think you're good to go then.

[Justin] All right, back to it.

[Justin] I think that's just ready to go.

He's pretty close to back where I left off.

He can continue to open the hole up.

So far so good.

[Justin] All right, we'll have to throw another basket.

[narrator] Down at Golden Gate Dustin and his crew

are also forced to contend with the raging flood waters.

We're getting all flooded right now, but we're gonna dredge anyway.

[narrator] And with a 1,000-pound boulder

teetering above their dive site...

I'm gonna get suited up.

Going underneath that damn thing man, that's freakin' terrifying.

[narrator] ...today's dive just got a lot riskier

for Marine Sergeant Carlos Minor.

I'm excited. I'm trying to think about this as a successful dive.

I can get gold and move a lot of boulders,

come out safely.

Got to take care of the family.

We're gonna see if Carlos can dive today.

[Dustin] Hopefully, he will find us some gold.

We really need it.

Well, we had a lot more rain last night, we got some flooding situations.

But we're getting so close to the gold that we're gonna push it to the limits now.

Just go as deep as you can right here, man.

- Yeah. - You know what to do.

Yeah, yeah, I got it.

Check air.

[inhales]

How you feeling, man?

- Good. - Pretty good.

All right, time to go under water.

All right.

Let's see what we got.

Definitely feel there's some kitty litter.

I better dredge as much as I can.

Sounds like there's a bunch of kitty litter filled in the hole a little bit.

Just workin' on that.

[grunts]

Hopefully, he gets to the rust layer I was in.

Wes, can you bring that basket up a little bit more please?

You got it.

[Carlos] All right, there we go. That's good. Thank you, sir.

Hitting the red rocks, fellas.

- Looking good. - I think we got into the red layer already.

Anyone that's ever found gold here talks about relating this red material to gold.

[narrator] Dustin invested every cent he had on Nugget Creek.

And a few weeks ago,

afraid he was never going to see a return on his investment...

- Hey, Al. - How's it been going up there?

Wet. We've flooding every week.

[narrator] ...he sought expert advice, from the man who sold him the claim, Al Gilliam.

When you get close to bedrock, you're gonna find a layer

of rusted and reddish color. Get through that clay,

this is what you gonna find.

- [laughs] - [Dustin] It's awesome.

He has dug straight down, he found red material.

You can see some of these rocks are just solid red.

[groans] Ah [bleep].

I got this big marble boulder.

[man] You... [bleep] That doesn't look good.

[narrator] On their last dive at around six feet deep,

James began to find the first hints of the fabled red layer

they're convinced yields big gold.

But the way is blocked by a large marble boulder,

which Carlos has to snare to get any deeper.

[Carlos] Now, the tricky part is I don't know if this can handle it.

One way to find out.

[Carlos] Let's do it. Let's find out. [laughs]

[Carlos] Okay Wes, let's pull.

[narrator] Carlos snares the marble boulder.

[Carlos] I don't know if it's gonna hold or not, man.

[narrator] Now they could be one pull away from a payday.

Come on baby.

Keep on pushing.

[bleep]

Come on. [grunts]

Looks like you got it.

[Carlos] That's beautiful. Yeah.

- [Carlos] Woo. - [Dustin] You can see the rust underneath it.

- [Dustin] Look at that. - [Carlos] Yeah.

- [Carlos] Good job, Wes. - [Dustin] That's sitting on a rust pack.

[Carlos] Woo hoo. We're gonna get gold today, guys.

[Carlos] Yeah, that's another layer.

It's breaking up.

Next thing after that is gold, so it should be there.

[Carlos] So I'll get all that red out.

- Well, your sluice box has turned very red. - Woo.

Look at that [bleep] comin' out.

[Carlos] There you go. [laughs]

[Carlos] I got a bunch of branches kicking.

All right, he's got you doubled down and he's about to stake it.

Oh, oh... [chuckles] I'm seeing gold.

- What the hell? - What?

- James is having some fun. - I'm seeing gold, guys.

- Oh my [bleep]! - [bleep] Yeah!

[Carlos] Woo hoo!

Yeah I got through that layer.

- Well, your sluice box has turned very red. - Woo.

Look at that [bleep] comin' out.

[Carlos] I got a bunch of branches kicking.

He's about to stake it.

[narrator] With a 1,000-pound boulder threatening the dive hole,

Carlos battles deep in Nugget Creek

to reach the fabled red layer and their first big nuggets of this season.

- What the hell? - What?

Oh, oh... [chuckles] I'm seeing gold.

- James is having some fun. - I'm seeing gold, guys.

[everyone cheering]

- I'm seeing gold. - [cheering continues]

- It's about time. - I knew there was gold in here.

I knew there was gold in here.

I knew that was over here!

[laughs]

- That's exciting. - Yeah.

That gives me a woody.

- Holy cow. - This might turn around for us.

- Yeah. - I was super worried, I'm not gonna lie.

[narrator] The marble rock out of the way, progress is swift.

It's only gonna get better. [laughs]

[narrator] Carlos gets down past eight feet.

[Carlos] I can't mess with that no more, I've got too much of it over my head.

Hey, how about we pull him out and clean up what we got?

We can do that if you want to.

The truth is I'm dying to see what kinda gold we got.

- Good job, man. - Good job, dude.

I can see for sure that that's gold.

[laughs] [bleep] Yeah dude.

Oh I see it. Oh yeah. [laughs]

I can see it right here.

- What're you seeing? I wanna see it. - Right down the corner.

I can see you. I see you.

- I see you. - Ah, look at that.

- Oh my [bleep] look at that. - [exclaims]

It's right there.

- [Carlos laughs] - [Dustin] Wow, look at that.

[Dustin] And we're starting to get gold. We got gold.

What I needed to see.

- Wow, look at that. - These are stuck in there.

- That's gold all through this. - Oh my [bleep] dude.

There's plenty, plenty more.

Well, it's not just stories anymore, there is gold here.

- They told the truth. - [Carlos laughing]

[Dustin] Good job Carlos.

And I'm probably gonna sleep good tonight.

Everybody is gonna sleep good tonight, dude.

Finally there's some gold. Finally.

So relieved right now, because I thought maybe it was all just folktale.

Starting to look good.

I don't know how much season we got,

but if it starts looking like this it's gonna add up quick.

[narrator] While Dustin's crew celebrates victory...

- [Justin grunts] No. - [Kayla] What's up?

[Justin] There's the current.

[narrator] Up creek, Justin is still battling the raging torrent.

[Justin] Oh!

[Justin] [bleep]

- Shoot. - Justin.

- [bleep] - [grunts]

[bleep]

[Justin] [grunts] Well, that was a fail.

[Justin] All right, let's crawl back.

[Paul] That current is rough when you got full body into it.

[narrator] A man down and time running out,

Kayla's season now hangs on her most inexperienced diver.

Justin having some learning issues with dealing with the current,

so the current caught him and pretty much

sailed him back all the way to the dredge.

[Justin] Ah, the current definitely picked up.

Yeah, it's a learning curve. Dealing with current

you have to know how maneuver your body

and he is still trying to get the hang of that.

- [Justin] Now it should be good. - [Paul] All right.

I know with this current like that, it's like holding a 4x8 sheet of plywood

up in the wind and expecting to be able to walk right.

- You have to maneuver differently with fast water. - Yeah.

[Justin] All right.

Justin seems to do pretty well for the most part in the water.

He still needs to get used to the fast current.

I can definitely tell he struggles with that aspect of diving here.

[Justin] Ready, go.

[Kayla] I can hear boulders rolling.

How you doing down there, Justin?

[Justin] Lots of rocks falling down in here.

[Justin] Oh [bleep]!

[Kayla] Nothing is cooperating.

[Justin] It's hard because the rain is coming in.

[Justin] All right, let's get back to it.

[narrator] Justin needs to work fast

to stay ahead of the rocks and gravel being sent down by the brutal current.

[Kayla] I'm really confused. There's hardly anything coming over the dredge.

- I don't know what's going on. - I don't know.

[narrator] Five hours in and Justin is not getting a lot of depth.

- I'm trying to expose more rocks. - Do you need a basket?

[Justin] Almost, not quite.

All righty then.

We have no material coming out. No rocks coming out.

- What is he doing? - I don't know.

[Kayla] If you're not moving material, we're not gonna stand here freezing.

[Kayla] We're about to call it.

[Justin] You're about to call it?

Because I don't see any rocks coming out or any stuff coming out of the dredge.

[Kayla] I don't know what the [bleep] he's doing.

[Justin] Is that it, or...

[Kayla] Yeah. [Justin] Okay.

[narrator] In the toughest conditions he's ever faced, Justin's longest dive

produced little result.

[Justin] It seems I had a problem earlier today with the air.

Material-wise, I didn't clear as much as I wanted to today.

[Justin] But it's opened up a little bit more wider.

I made a little bit of progress.

[Kayla] Today, with the conditions

as he was diving it was still filling in.

Unfortunately, that slows the progress down a lot.

Because it's more of maintenance dive than a new progress dive.

[Kayla] And it just seems like we just can't get anywhere.

Every time we make a little bit of progress, it gets wiped away.

We need to start seeing some gold.

We need to make progress. We need to get a lot of work done.

And nothing is cooperating with us right now.

[narrator] Up ahead...

- We found gold. - [everyone laughing]

[Kayla] If we hit bottom, we can find some gold.

Let's try to get that thing out of here.

We're gonna push it to the limits now.

It's ripped in half.

- What the [bleep]. - Everything went to [bleep].

Gold, holy [bleep].

[Carlos] Ooh, holy moly.

What's up y'all?

What's up y'all?

How did it go for you all today?

Not too bad. Got a dive in.

It's cool.

How did you all do?

We uh... Carlos dove today. What did you find today?

- We found gold, dude. We found gold. - Yeah!

Gold, I mean gold, dude.

- I'm talkin' about gold, gold, gold. - [everyone laughing]

I don't know how many times I've been waiting to say that, dude. Gold!

It looked like we set that up, but we didn't. [laughs]

Once they got into that rust, holy [bleep] it just looked

like the river was bleeding, when it was coming of the dredge

- So it's just like they're saying? - Dude,

just like they said, I was going underneath the boulder,

there was that hard red pack,

so I was just picking up rocks that was just red, you know?

- Yeah. - Then I was saying like, "There has to be gold here."

Man, I'm following all the signs.

- I'm following all the signs. - [laughs]

- Just like they said, you know what I mean? - Yeah.

The boulder, red pack, come on.

[Dustin] There is actually gold here. I was starting to get worried.

- Yeah, me too. - It was another McKinley.

- Damn. - You all got to be right there close as well.

Hopefully we're close because we're starting to hit that really hard packed stuff.

We may be have, what, four feet to go to get to that level.

Look for the rust, that's where it's at.

Only downside is, where we're at, every time it floods

it brings in not just small debris

but it actually rolls big rocks into our hole.

- [Dustin] Really? - [Kayla] We had to start over.

Wow.

You know, big rocks rolling in. You could hear 'em rolling in our hole.

We're fighting the current with the dredge,

with our bodies, with everything.

We've been there before.

What if, it's like, diversion wall, diversion wall.

- [Justin] That's all I could think of just now. - [Carlos] That's a great idea.

We're set up perfect to have that there.

[Dustin] If you got it to where floods

- affect you as bad, then it'd be worth... - [Paul] Yes.

...every moment of it, right?

[man] It definitely would be worth it.

So maybe we just need to bring the cap stand and pull some of those.

- That's a not a bad idea. I forgot about cap stand. - Yeah.

Y'all can definitely do that.

[Dustin] All right, let's call it a night, tomorrow let's hit it hard.

Let's get some more gold, all right?

[together] All right.

We really need this season to start turning around

because there's not much left to it. If we don't get any gold

that's an entire mining season that went to [bleep].

That we completely wasted.

[Kayla] I am not okay with that option.

We're going to work on a water diversion.

We're gonna give it everything we have.

Hopefully, we can start making some progress

and we won't have any more major setbacks.

Water looks good.

[Kayla] I don't hear boulders rolling or anything.

[Justin] Nuh-uh, it doesn't look that bad, does it?

There needs to be

a... a kind of a steep angle,

not straight across the creek.

[Justin] That's what I was thinking.

[narrator] After weeks of losing their dive hole

to infill brought down by the current,

Kayla has a plan.

First thing today, we gotta take some time out of diving

to move some of the boulders upstream to make the diversion,

it should alleviate some of the backfill

that we keep getting in our hole.

[Kayla] It won't get rid of all the water

- but it'll help push that current over. - Yeah. That'll work.

[narrator] They'll use a capstan winch to pull rocks from a recent landslide

across the main channel to create a wall that will deflect the water

to the far side of the creek,

then open up that channel

by moving some of the big rocks

blocking it with the main winch system.

What that's gonna do is help it be a lot easier for the divers

if they're not fighting that current the whole time.

Even though it takes away from hours diving today,

it's gonna make the hours that we put in diving

later today or tomorrow and everyday

from here on out easier to make progress.

All right,

when do we wanna pull first?

- [Kayla] I'll try this one? - [Paul] We could try it.

[Kayla] A lot of pull on this, hey?

[Paul] It should.

What is going on with it?

[Kayla] The rock's not too big for it, is it?

[Paul] I've seen it pull a lot bigger rocks than that.

[machine whirring]

It's just a portable winch that we can wrap a rope around,

pull a bit of tension,

and it's supposed to pull the rock

but today for some reason we're having a little bit of issues.

[Justin] It should pull that rock easy.

[Kayla] That's so weird.

[Paul] That's why we're trying to plough.

We're trying to plough a lot of material righ here with that.

[Kayla] Let's see if we can pry loose that middle one.

[narrator] Unable to move the big boulders from thr landslide,

they attempt the closer river rocks.

[Kayla] Feel like this is gonna take us a little longer than we thought.

[Kayla chuckles]

[Justin] Huh.

Why isn't this working?

[Paul] I might be able to put that to that redirect.

[Justin] Almost.

[Justin groans]

[Paul] We got one rock in place so far.

[Kayla] So far we've diverted the current a little bit.

[Paul] It would have been nice to be able to get right there

and not worry about being flushed downstream.

[Kayla] That'd be nice. Hopefully gonna have a dive today.

[Justin] Oh yeah, that's what I'm thinking too.

[narrator] While Kayla's crew struggles to get ahead,

down creek, Dustin's crew is on the gold.

[James] Water's clear today,

that's a good sign, might be able to see nuggets.

[narrator] Yesterday, Carlos finally broke into the legendary red layer

that might just turn their season around.

My turn in the hole.

I hope to go find some gold.

[Carlos] Dustin's gonna have a good dive man,

we're gonna see gold in the box today.

Clear water,

he's gonna be able to see the gold.

We're on the gold finally,

so if Dustin has a great dive today, no issues,

we're gonna see a lot more gold in the box.

It's gonna be a great day.

We've been stuggling just to keep the dredge in the water

so we can all finally dive.

So, this is a big deal to us

because we're finding gold and we're dredging,

and finally set up to where we can get there.

Just took an entire season to get to this.

- [Dustin] All right, we ready? - [Wes] Yeah.

[Carlos] Yeah! Woo hoo!

[Carlos] All right, man.

Ready to rock and roll.

[Dustin] Well, I see these rocks y'all been talking about.

Getting rid of a whole bunch of kitty litter that built up overnight.

- [James] Guess who's back? - [Carlos] Dustin's back!

[James] Dustin's back.

[Dustin] All right, uh,

I have entirely too much hose down here.

I, I know, man.

I won't be able to dredge like this.

[narrator] Dustin's more than eight feet down,

but in the cramped dive hole,

his 40 foot hose is causing problems.

[Dustin] So can you pull it up, go away?

Yep, we're gonna float it.

[Carlos] Pull it that way.

Oh, okay... okay... hey, hey hold on.

[Carlos] Okay, pull it.

Pull it that way.

[Dustin] Yeah, that's better.

It's already better.

All right, we're good. Thank you.

[Dustin] What the[bleep]?

What's going on with my suction?

[Wes] Yeah, that's the litter.

[Carlos] Yeah, hey.

[James] Looks good.

Water looks good from this side.

[Dustin] It's either stopped up or doubled down or something.

[Carlos] You gotta check you nozzle

because, uh, we got plenty of water coming out of that sluice.

Well, I can tell you to...

I can put my hand right over the end of it to stop it off.

I don't know if we got, uh...

Maybe we ripped the hose.

I think we might've ripped that hose.

[James] Oh [bleep].

It's ripped in half.

Oh [bleep].

[James] Shut it down.

[Dustin] What the[bleep]?

Look at that.

[Dustin] What the[bleep]?

What's going on with my suction?

I don't know, if we got, uh,

maybe we ripped the hose.

[Dustin] Yeah, I don't know.

[Carlos] I think we might've ripped that hose.

[James] Oh [bleep].

It's ripped in half.

[Wes] Oh [bleep].

[Dustin] What the[bleep]?

Look at that.

[narrator] Dustin should be dredging up nuggets from that gold rich red layer.

[Dustin] Look at that.

[narrator] But just minutes into his dive,

they're forced to shut down.

[Dustin] What are you gonna do?

[Carlos] I don't know what we can do.

[James] This hose is trashed, man.

[Dustin] What's the play here guys?

[Carlos] You got no hot water dude,

you might as well get out, dude,

you got no hot water.

[Dustin] Why? Is it not running at all?

[Carlos] Not all all man.

- [Dustin] Oh, great. - [Carlos] You gotta get out.

[Dustin laughs]

That was probably my shortest dive ever.

Uh, all that for nothing, huh?

- [Dustin laughs] - [Wes] [bleep]

[Dustin] I barely even got wet, man.

All right, hold on, hold on, let's figure this out.

Maybe, James, you can go ask to see if

there's another hose we can snatch off them,

- 'cause I think they're only running one dredge. - [James] Copy that.

[Dustin] Not very lucky lately.

[Dustin laughs]

Soon as I seen that hose bent in half my heart sank, I'm like,

"We're just on the gold, just on to it."

Big nuggets could be sitting there,

just a hose,

but it always is something.

Something that breaks.

It's one of the most minor things that pisses you off.

Minor things.

[Dustin] We're getting close to having to get out.

[James] Copy that, I'm gonna go figure out that hose.

[Kayla] I think that I'll just go ahead and pull this one

- all the way back. - We can definitely do that.

[narrator] Up creek,

Kayla is just a few rocks from finishing their diversion wall.

[Kayla] So far, so good.

[narrator] And busting to dive for gold.

[Kayla] This thing will make it so much easier to get a lot done.

She's gonna out do it, she's gonna have it so good.

[Kayla] I do that anyway.

[laughs]

[Kayla] Just kidding.

- Partially. - [Justin laughs]

That's gonna stop that flow completely.

[Justin] Hell yeah.

[Kayla] It's going.

- [Kayla] Got it. - [Justin] Yeah!

[Paul] Nicely done.

[Paul] This is working, that flow has pretty much slowed down.

[Kayla] That should make a pretty good channel.

[Justin] This is beautiful.

We've changed it quite a bit,

that's a good flow coming through here now.

It's amazing what a little bit of rock moving can do.

It's definitely making a difference.

[Justin] What's going on?

[James] Our hose broke in half.

- Crap. - [James] So we're gonna ask you guys

if we could borrow a hose.

[James] Dustin's still in his suit trying to get hot water,

so I don't know what's gonna happpen to the dive today.

[Justin] Damn, all right.

You see James down there?

That... they broke their hose.

- [Kayla] Well, that sucks. - [Justin] Yeah.

[Justin] They're out wanting to ask if they could borrow one.

[Kayla] They can take that short one

- we're not using right now. - [Justin] Okay.

It's propbaby not the one they're looking for, but...

[Kayla] That's the one they're getting,

- 'cause the other two are connected. - [Justin] That's so true.

[Paul] How did they break their hose?

- [James] I'll try to get that thing out of here. - [Justin] Okay.

[James] I appreciate your help, man.

[James] I should be able to get it from here.

- [Justin] Okay. - [James] I appreciate it, man.

[Carlos] Good job, James.

I don't know if it's long enough.

[Dustin] Throw it that way.

[Carlos] Throw it that way, James.

Looks like Kayla had an extra hose for us.

Gotta see if that works.

[Wes] Still warming up?

I'm freezing my ass off right now.

[Wes] I feel cursed here.

Feel like this place hates us.

- [James] Good? - [Carlos] Yeah, good.

[Carlos] That looks all right, dude.

[Dustin] Fire that baby up.

Let's see if it works.

One little suction hiccup,

we're back in business. Woo!

[Carlos] Always an eventful day bro,

always.

[Carlos] You good?

[James] Do you have good suction now?

[Dustin] Yeah, it's doing all right.

I'm just trying to follow a hole down right now,

see where it goes.

[Justin] We got material coming over.

[Carlos] Woo-hoo!

Ruby red,

- and root beer. - [Carlos] You heard this?

He's making money, he's making money.

[Dustin] All right guys,

going straight down.

Couple of nuggets just went in the box, I could smell it.

We need gold to make this day right.

[Justin] Woo hoo! [chuckles]

[Dustin] "Go dredging" they said,

"it's fun," they said.

[Carlos] Dustin's back in there,

not in the happiest of moods but hey,

when are we ever in a happiest mood?

Except when we're finding gold.

[narrator] Hours behind schedule,

Dustin is finally dredging the red layer,

desperate to find the gold that will save his season.

[Wes] Is this all the gas we have?

[Carlos groans] Ah, [bleep] sake.

We'll grab another five gallons.

- [Wes] I think it would be a lot safer... - I'll go get it.

- I'll be back. - [Wes] ...if we did that,

- we won't get in any trouble. - [Carlos] Yeah.

[James laughs]

[Carlos] Somebody dropped the ball for not bringing enough fuel cans.

That's something that we don't wanna make public with Dustin.

- [Dustin] Where did Carlos go? - [James] Um...

What are you doing over there [bleep]?

[Carlos] Yeah, this hose is okay.

[Dustin] Things good? Okay.

[Carlos] Got some fuel just to finish off the day.

No harm, no foul,

it really never happened.

[Paul] That's way better.

[Kayla] That's the calmest it's ever been.

[Paul] That ain't no lie.

[narrator] A man down,

and no gold all season,

Kayla's diversion wall has to work.

Hopefully we'll start seeing something soon.

[Paul] I hope so too.

Since we're not expending as much energy

fighting the current, we will have more energy

to move materials, so hopefully that will increase production.

I'm gonna try to keep following them all the way down,

hope it will bottom out,

and there's good potential that we could find some gold.

[Kayla] It's nice having a little bit of visibility right now.

There's definitely some big boulders

right here that need to go.

[Paul] Roger that.

After we do the diversion,

there's been a lot less current

and it looks like there's some decent visibility,

so we're close,

and being the other teams got gold

that's just pushing us that much harder right now,

so I think everybody is excited, about to see what's gonna come out today.

[Kayla] If you could just set it like right here.

Thank you.

[Justin chuckles]

- [Kayla] Good rep.[laughs] - [Justin] Yeah.

She has moved a lot of material,

so that's definitely a step in the right direction.

All we can hope for now is we're within two to three feet of the sea and gold.

[Kayla] Okay, we're good. Let's start dredging now.

[narrator] The calmer water inside the wall

has allowed Kayla to move a ton of boulders,

and get down to the gravel layer where she can start to dredge.

- [Kayla] We can turn suction on now. - [Paul] Copy that.

- [Justin] She's getting into some dirty stuff there. - [Paul] [bleep] yeah.

[Paul] She's got a rusty red layer coming up now.

- [Justin] Ooh! - [Paul] Oh, hell yeah!

- [Kayla chuckles] - [Paul] Yeah!

[Justin] Nice.

- [Paul] That was some dark material. - [Justin] That's awesome.

We're back on untouched ground,

it is red layer,

and that's where the gold is gonna be,

so hopefully we're gonna have one hell of a day.

[Justin] [bleep] yeah.

[narrator] Down creek, over eight feet beneath Big Ass Boulder...

[Dustin] I got into a hole more than an arm's length down.

[narrator] ...Dustin is four hours into a dive

that he hopes will salvage their season.

We got termination dust on the freaking mountains,

we know where the gold's at,

get what we can, as much as we can, quick!

[Dustin] Uh, I'm through, might have to stake it.

Water looks good from this side, I hope we didn't break it again.

[Dustin] Something's going on, I think there's an opening somewhere.

Gotta be sucking air.

[Dustin] I think we[bleep] up and lost the prime.

[James] Whoa! Whoa! [bleep]

[Carlos] It's spraying it out, man, it's spraying it out

[Wes] [bleep] sake.

[Carlos] Spraying it like that

loses all our gold, man.

[Dustin] What the[bleep]?

[James] Losing the prime from the foot valve.

[Wes] I can wash that [bleep] out with this, so...

[narrator] Air in the pump is causing it to spray and lose suction.

- [Wes] Okay, it's working now? - [machine whirring]

- [James] Go ahead. - [Carlos] Here goes.

[narrator] Simply purging the air from the system in just minutes,

Wes gets them back in the game.

[Dustin] All right, I'm gonna dredge some more.

[Wes] Oh [bleep], the water is [bleep] merked out.

[Carlos] [bleep] sake.

[James] You've got to be kidding me.

D, you just lost your visuals right?

[Dustin] Oh, yeah, 100 perecent now.

[Wes] Man, he can't catch a [bleep] break

with this [bleep] full of water,

that's [bleep] up [bleep].

[Dustin] Oh, you think you're diving good today?

Oh, we're gonna break the hose and dirty your water.

- [Carlos] This creek hates Dustin, man. - [Wes] It does,

it absolutely does.

[Dustin laughs] Oh, you're finding gold?

How about we blow up an engine?[laughs]

[Wes] First day he wants to dive again and everything went to [bleep].

Like, really?

[Dustin] I just can't make this dive happen, man.

I kinda wonder if we shouldn't just [bleep] call it.

- You like... let's... you wanna call it? - [machine whirring]

[James] Shut it down.

It's not Dustin's day for a dive.

So we're calling it.

Tomorrow's another day.

[Dustin] I am exhausted.

This is freaking unbelieveble.

[Dustin] But we've been working so hard

- our bodies is starting to give up on us. - What a day.

[narrator] With winter approaching,

a bad day was the last thing the crew needed.

Things did not go well.

It turned into like a little dive nightmare.

[Dustin] I'm beat.

[Wes] Now I doubt there's anything in the sluice.

[Carlos] Holy [bleep].

- Gold! - [Justin and Wes] What?

- [Dustin] Ah! - [Carlos laughs]

[Wes] Are you [bleep] kidding me?

[Carlos] Gold underneath that.

- Gold! - [Wes] Gold.

[Carlos] Look at that gold caught eight here.

- Gold! Look at that nugget right there. - [James] Yeah.

[Carlos] Whoo! Holy moly.

Look at that.

Whoo doggie!

Look at that.

[Wes] Holy [bleep], man.

That's so freaking heavy.

- It'll only get better. - It'll only gonna get bigger.

[James] Got some nuggies,

pickers and nuggies.

A lot of gold in here, just everywhere.

[Carlos] You know we're on a pay streak

when you still get gold on a bad dive.

[Carlos] Oh, look at that big chunk right there.

Here on out, gold, gold, gold.

[Dustin] How does it look fellas?

- [Wes] It's chock full. - [Dustin] How much?

[Wes] There's ounces for sure.

- [Dustin] That's awesome. - [Carlos] Good freaking deal.

Right now this is just scratching the surface.

[Wes] Yeah, we're just getting started.

[Dustin] We knew there was gold here

and now it's about to start freezing on us and the snow is coming,

and it's happening, we're finding gold.

[Wes] There's no telling how much gold we got in here.

[Dustin] I'm excited,

I hope there's a big payoff,

looks like there's gonna be.

- Thank you, God. - [James laughs]

[Dustin] I swear, man, just thank you, God.

[Kayla] I'm gonna get this basket out,

then I have to clean up the bottom a little bit.

[Paul] Copy that.

[narrator] Five hours into her dive,

the diversion wall has helped Kayla make a massive push to bedrock.

Holy [bleep].

After all that rock moving

I don't know how she has the energy to go this long.

You got any clue on how deep you might have gotten?

[Kayla] Uh, I'm standing.

- [Paul] Okay. - [Kayla] That might be all I have in me today.

- What time is it anyways? - [Paul] Four.

Four? Already?

Wow.

I didn't realize I've been in that long.

[Kayla] I thought I was cutting it short.

[Justin] No [bleep], you've been there for a long time.

[Paul] She's put in a full dive today,

moved some big rocks,

moved lot of material.

[Justin] Damn.

[Paul] Getting us one step closer to the bottom.

[Kayla] I can't wait to see what's in the box.

[Paul] And you had some dirty ass material coming over,

little bit of reddish in it...

That [bleep] looked good.

[machine whirring]

[Kayla] What? I think that's gold.

[Justin] What the [bleep]?

- [Kayla] Spot of gold. - [Justin] No [bleep] way.

[Justin] There you go.

- [Kayla] It's about [bleep] time. - [Justin guffaws]

[Justin] [bleep] damn.

[Paul] No [bleep]!

[Kayla] I was starting to think we weren't gonna get anything this year.

- It was hard to stay positive. - [Justin] That was good.

[Kayla] That makes it a little easier.

[narrator] Kayla's epic dive has finally gotten her crew

down into the gold rich pay layer.

[Kayla] Wow, that's a nice piece right there.

[Justin] Holy [bleep], here.

[Kayla] We weren't wasting our time after all.

[Justin] What a relief.

[Paul] You talk about a second wind.

- Right? - [Paul] That's our second wind right there.

That's what we needed.

[Kayla] Ready?

[Justin] [bleep] Yeah.

[Paul chuckles]

- [Justin] That's amazing. - [Paul] We got gold.

Finally.

Finally it's paying off here!

[Kayla] Today was a huge moment for us,

we've put in so much work this season,

and this kinda just sparks that fire again,

so I think everyone is excited to get back to work.

- You're ready? - [Kayla] Yes.

- [Paul] Let's do this. - Yeah.

Celebratory beer.

[Paul] [bleep] yeah.

[Dustin] All right guys, this is the last of it.

Let's see what we got.

[narrator] After over four months of back breaking work,

Dustin's crew have finally got a big load of concentrate

to run through the trummel.

- [Wes] That's nice looking gold right there boys. - [Carlos] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nice, chunky gold.

- [Paul] Hey, y'all. - Sup, Paul?

- [Paul] How's it looking? - [Wes] Not bad, we just started, man.

[Carlos] Oh, how did you guys do today?

- We got gold! - [All] Yeah!

[Paul] Yeah!

[bleep] Right, man. Hell yeah!

- [Carlos] Where is it? Show me, show me. - [Wes] [bleep] yeah.

- [Paul] About time. - [Carlos] That's what I'm talking about dude.

You got that red hard pack?

Yup. Once she got out I wanted to put my suit on and just go right back in,

I didn't wanna stop.

- [Carlos] Look at that. Gold there, dude. - [Paul laughs]

[Carlos and Paul laughing]

- [Carlos] Yeah, dude. - [Paul] Damn.

[Kayla] This has been such a tough season,

that definitely weighed on everyone.

Today, seeing gold finally is making it worth it

because I think we can really hit it big here.

- [Dustin] How much is there? - [Carlos] Couple ounces.

- [Wes] Probably at least. - [Dustin] Awesome.

With it looking like this already

there is no telling what's gonna be there.

[Dustin] Finding gold,

it's a little late in the season for it, but it's happening,

it's got everybody lit up and happy about it.

[Carlos] Yeah!

[Dustin] We just need to keep going.

We were all worried that there was just pipe dreams here.

There's actual gold here,

so here we go.

[narrator] On the next Gold Rush White Water.

[James] Let's go find some gold.

A 100 ton rock could just slip off on top of him.

[Dustin] If this comes down it's gonna fall right in here.

Boom!

[Kayla] We don't know if it's gonna hit flood stage

but it's very possible that it could.

We are definitely running out of time.

[Carlos] You gotta climb in the mouth of a dragon to get gold.

If there's any gold in there he's gonna pull it all out, I promise.

[Justin] Definitely see shiny flakes down here on the bedrock.

[Kayla] Shiny flakes?

Hopefully it's gold.

[Carlos exclaims] Yeah! There its is.

- Woo hoo! Woo hoo! - [Fred laughing]

[Wes] Oh, yeah!

[Dustin] It's finally our time.