Original subtitles

Welcome to my nightmare.

That river has been known to take boats, eat them up, and spit out whoever's inside of it.

Right now, this water's coming in so fast that it's filling in.

I'm trying to pull a one boat, nothing happens, because the other one's pinned down.

So I almost have to unbury and dig out both boats in order for one to move.

We've made it all the way past the most treacherous part of the river.

For some reason, I guess our steering cable came loose, got stuck in the prop.

We heard a big bang.

Ah, motherfucker!

And the boat shut off, we're coasting in the water.

I drove my airboat out, tried to rescue them.

In this freaking crazy strong current that smashed us up against the wall.

Hold on!

Everybody almost nearly died.

Now, they're full of rocks. We have to dig out these boats.

The dredges the only way that's going to happen.

Here he comes.

So I sit in a helicopter up to get the dredge.

These boats just live there forever.

Holy sh**!

It was straining to pick that up!

I hope it makes it.

This is going to be a huge expense to us, but at the same time it has to be done.

Can't find any gold if you can't get to it.

On the wilds, Cercou River, Dustin Hertz's season hangs in the balance.

He's a huge setback.

But we have to have the boat. There's no way to get up there feasible that's not a billion dollars.

The airboats are critical to their remote operation.

We should start that pitch up.

We should start digging like a f**king maniac.

Forcing Dustin to tap into this season's profits to fund the rescue mission.

Oh, honestly, man, this is stricken BS crap right here, man.

We need those airboats.

Those airboats are our ticket.

Back to the fork to work.

We can't get the work. We can't get gold.

Time is of the essence. We need our transportation out of the water.

I'm going to tell you right now, if you stick that inside of one of these machines, it's just going to gobble for hours.

It'll pull from two feet around.

I agree. I say turn them all the way up.

There you go.

Get ready to go diving.

That thing that we're doing to go over.

But right now, the airboat is our fricking nuggets right now.

More fricking can than this. Come on.

I see what depends on it.

Watch out, huh?

Get out of there. Get out of there.

That's like a fricking dominoes of death, man.

That whole section right here above us wants to come loose.

Find some gold.

Time to pay the bills and get to the bottom of this damn thing.

Hey!

Oh, **** you all right?

You got blood everywhere.

You can't stop. The winner is here already.

Hold on. Think I can feel bedrock.

That's gold, isn't it?

Yeah. First gold.

So we're going to get more and more after today.

We're going to hit that pastry.

Big ass boulder.

I know that the gold at the bottom of this.

See if we can empty that boat.

There's tons of rock up in here.

You thought it was a mess?

No.

Yeah.

I'm here.

I'm here.

Did you hear that?

Yeah.

I'm getting a little bit of it.

I'm going to do it.

You got it.

No.

I'm going to do it.

I'm going to do it.

No.

Don't worry.

I'm going to do it.

I'm going to do it.

Don't worry.

Don't worry.

Don't worry.

Don't worry.

That's perfect, thank you.

Hey, Carlos, is there anything I can do to make your life easier?

No, no, man. I got a black and two, man.

Over four miles from civilization,

the strong currents are filling the two airboats with gravel,

pinning them to the river bottom.

The plan? Use the dredge hose to suck up the tons of material that is filled the hull

so the crew can attempt to free them with a come-along from the river's strangle hole.

I just got a jump to the other side.

How's it going down there? All this going down there.

Hey, James, he says my boat's cleaned out, so can I get you to put that f***ing big

stupid come-along? Don't get on there.

Yo, get a couple clicks. One more.

I think it moves.

Another. Holy f***ing move it.

See, we can get it to turn and flatten out, and then we can empty out all the water,

because I can't get all the water out of it, but that angle.

Get ready to go for a ride.

Get a swing a little bit.

Oh, baby! Yeah!

Hell yeah! Whoo! Whoo! Whoo! Whoo!

Yeah! Yeah!

Oh, she's back, baby!

So dirty, but she's back.

That was something, man. That's a huge win.

We needed this. F***ing we needed this.

We dredged a boat out with minimal damage, bent a few things, but overall the boat came out intact.

Now we have to do some engine work to get it running, but the guys did great.

Huge win.

Dustin's boat, his engine didn't go into water, and he might be able to get his big boat going again.

Yeah, that's easy. I can fix that no problem.

See we try to start it?

Yeah.

Clear prop. Clear prop.

Yeah! Hell yeah! Whoo! Whoo!

We got machine to run again.

Less disaster, people. Less disaster.

This is getting me back in camp.

24 hours later, with both boats now recovered.

We just been too long digging up a boat, getting it floating again.

Time to get back to work, and get digging.

In the first half of their mining season, at Nugget Bend.

Whoa, that's not good!

That's more good over there.

Carlos uncovered a Nugget worth over $50,000.

Oh my!

That's the biggest Nugget in gold rush history right there.

It's not just stories anymore. Places for real.

Determined to find more monster nuggets, Dustin gambled on a move 250 feet up Creek.

We're going to go back where we were last year.

Really?

Holy moly, man.

Back to Big-Ass Boulder, the dive site that last season nearly broke them.

Everything is falling into place, and I can't wait to see how much gold is down there.

But when Carlos took the first dive...

How's the lucky Carlos?

Oh, this is not the end, dude.

His progress was stopped by a layer of impenetrable hard pack.

This is something different, Matt. I've never seen nothing like this before.

All right.

Paul, you going down today?

Yep.

All right.

Let's try a different method today.

We're going to try to take the bedrock down, and with any luck,

you can pry off of the bedrock wall and pop that stuff up.

Dustin's new plan? Use a pry bar to break down the ancient hard pack from the bedrock wall.

Then follow the wall down to the deepest point beneath the slow waters downstream of Big-Ass Boulder.

That should contain a jackpot of six ounce nuggets.

You got that small freaking crowbar out there?

I think so.

Yeah.

This might be a lot better. I like this plan.

So, yeah, let's get out there. You're in?

Yep.

And here we go. Sounds great.

We got to find this gold line.

Sikes, man.

I think you're going to get a lot of work done today.

Take today's the day, man. Your hope's going to come through.

If I can follow that bedrock down and get us closer to the middle,

I think it'll put us right there by that gold line.

Well, get as far as you can, obviously.

Just time-wise, time-wise, it seems like if you get down to the gold line, that would be magic.

It would, wouldn't it? Yeah.

Migo, get suited up.

I know that there's gold at the bottom of this and nobody's been in this damn hole.

I just have to get down there. Let's get this done.

Let's find some big, big gold.

It's already September 1st.

That's good right there, Max. That's perfect, I think.

And in Alaska, winter comes with little warning.

So the season's getting close, weather's starting to change.

It's a matter of time for me to get froze out or flood out.

We're going to come for this spot.

Today, I'm going to follow the bedrock wall down, get closer to the middle,

and open the next couple of days, we'll put a lot of gold in the box.

Today, I'm going to crush it.

You ready? Yeah.

I think this is going to work.

Damn, a bit of Alsom's after this, I hope I can remember how to do it.

Alright, you're up, let it go.

Put that hot water on. Hot water.

We all stretch it!

Find some gold!

Come on, bedrock. Take me to the bottom.

Yeah.

Follow it, follow it.

Just keep going.

Well, that's amazing how locked in, it is.

I can feel gravel everywhere, but don't suck it up until you break it up.

Never experience this.

We think that the gold went straight down the center because it wasn't a huge water,

and then the hard-pack laid on top of that.

So we're looking for the ancient bottom of the very center of this thing,

and that's where the gold is in this creek.

How's it going with the digging? Is it speeding up at all?

Just a slow pace.

Up and slowly up.

Oh, okay. It's just all hard-pack.

Yep.

It's all over the place.

Yeah, this hard-pack is going to be the hardest thing for us to do.

You know, it's hard to say, I don't know if Paul is making this good progress

because we're in the hard-pack that we've never seen before.

This virgin ground, it's like trying to take some concrete.

That's some of the hardest for the dredging I've ever done.

This sucks.

Let's just take a break.

Coming down, James.

I see gold.

I see gold.

That's gold.

And that's gold.

And that's gold.

I see gold.

That's gold, isn't it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

First gold.

Yeah.

First gold.

I see gold.

That's gold.

That nugget creek.

That's gold, isn't it?

Yeah.

First gold.

First gold.

After a change in strategy, Dustin's crew are on the gold.

It's going to happen, but it's like you said, we're just going to follow this bedrock down and find that bottom.

And we're going to hit that pastry.

That's what we were talking about, but we knew there's a big mother-low down there.

Yeah.

We're going to get more and more after today.

Let's find some more gold.

I think it's great that we're finding little gold, but that's not what I'm looking for.

I need heavy pay.

I need lots of gold to pay for all the stem gasoline that we're using, all the beans that we're eating.

It's not up on the sides, and it's not up behind some little boulder.

It's at the bottom, and that's where we need to go.

Not anywhere.

But after nearly four hours in the water, Paul has barely made a dent in the hard pack.

It's just so tight down here.

Everything is so hard-packed that I feel like I'm wasting time.

If it's the same as the rest of Nugget Creek, they could have another nine feet before they hit bedrock bottom.

And I feel like I'm working the same spot all day, and I have not got anywhere.

What do you want to do, man?

I think I'm going to go ahead and call it.

I can sit here and just pick at it, but I'm not making any yardage.

I've never tried anything this hard-packed in like this.

All right, just call it a day.

Okay, all right.

Now I'm here, let's shut her down.

Let's shut her down.

Well, that didn't go to where I expected.

Really open. We get a big solid hole.

We see a little bit of gold, and we got to quit.

I guess the hard pack's harder than I think it is. That's all.

I am struggling so hard to get a good day dredging in. It's killing me.

I was really hoping we make some heavy progress today.

We did.

It's a little disappointing, I think a lot.

I'm going to run out of time with you doing this.

I know. We need a solution, not four problems.

Yielda.

This box looks like.

That's actually a cool looking piece.

To be honest with you, for real, I did not expect a seedy gold.

It's not a half ounce of nugget, but it's a start.

Tom DePaidabils gets it a bottom of this damn thing, and it's a big,

confident, there's huge gold here.

Something that will actually change our lives.

We're going to be doing it.

Good morning.

What I saw on the weather forecast is not looking good.

They've got us under flood warning.

So Zephyr today starts tonight.

If we're going to try to make it to the end of this dig by the start of snow,

at this pace, we'll be working at this hole.

Just that start section for the next three weeks.

I don't think we have more in a month.

Right now, I'm at the beginning of September, so it's like 30 days.

You know, depending on the weather, man, give 15 days or take away 15 days.

You know, I've got to thinking about all that hard pack.

I think we need to bring the high pressure sprayer back out.

That thing's working perfect.

At the start of the season, the crew used steam

and a high pressure spray gun to break up the snow bridge.

Paul's idea?

Use the high-powered pressure washer to blast through the concrete-like hard pack.

We need to speed up.

I hope this pressure washes a damn good solution.

I think it is.

I'm going to set it down.

We've been failing.

Pressure washer has to be the answer.

Hopefully it just chews this stuff up.

If not, then...

I actually don't even know what the hell to do, because we got to get through this.

Golden the box today, guys.

Guaranteed.

Because the goldhound said so.

I just have the good luck with gold.

Dustin's really chomping at the bit because the...

The production right now is not good, so my mission today is to rip through this hard pack.

And I'm going to try my hardest.

Let me know if that pressure washer works, because...

I'm getting desperate here.

I need you to change that.

I'll make it happen.

I need some digging done.

Good to go!

Rock and roll!

Alright.

Our goal right now is to cut a trench.

We're right over there.

Over to that wall.

Okay.

I need to know...

Where the center is, doesn't matter about horseback,

it doesn't matter about the red stuff, the blade.

Don't get stuck on the boulder.

I don't get the f***ing...

But any of that stuff, what I need to know is where the gold line's at,

and that's what you're doing right now.

We're going to find that gold line.

Yes, sir.

The new plan...

Use the heavy duty pressure washer to cut through the dense hard pack...

and make a trench across the dive hole to locate the ancient gold line buried below.

There it goes!

Look at that!

This guy, hope that's just worked!

You got your high pressure splinted in?

I really have high hopes on this pressure washer.

This work great.

Is it working good?

Yeah.

So it just cuts right through it like butter?

That's what I want to hear.

Yep.

But you're sure real quick.

Finally, we're going to make some real progress.

That's a pretty good looking material you got coming over the box now.

Oh yeah!

That's perfect.

It looks like it's working really good.

Actually turning into a fun dig.

Now we're getting somewhere.

Fish and washes working.

We're not dead stop now.

That hard pack man, sweat stopping us to get the gold.

Gold right there.

So, with this high pressure sprayer, it's not right through all that junk.

Oh man, for sure.

James is going to find some color today.

What I'm doing is I'm covering this boulder.

I got it deep over here.

So, how's he doing?

He's doing good.

He's working on that boulder.

Yeah, I know.

Hey man, what are you getting into?

Oh, there's a big boulder down here.

I'm exposing hard pack.

Alright.

If you're digging on something, you're going to be getting a little bit more.

Alright.

If you're digging on something, I know I want you to use.

I want you to use the sprayer.

Okay.

That's a big boulder.

Alright, that's okay.

Let's not focus on that.

Just keep going man.

Just keep going.

Yarnage.

Yarnage.

Yarnage.

Yarnage.

Much yardage in this kit.

That's a large hard pack.

I would clean this whole area.

And let's start trying to get further up this way here in a minute.

Is he moving any material?

Uh, yeah.

He's stuck on getting that boulder unstuck, and that's all he's going to do to hold that.

Hey man, you moved on for that boulder already, right?

You moved on for that boulder and you're working on yardage, right?

No, I'm working on the hard pack under the boulder.

Around the earth.

I want you to do yardage.

That's what I'm saying.

Let's get these much yardages as we can.

Don't focus on the boulder.

That's what I said earlier.

Don't focus on the boulder.

Don't focus on the boulder.

Some of my guys get stuck on task.

They get focused on one thing and they can't get it undone.

They won't look in the big fixes.

I don't care about that one single boulder right now.

I'm getting a little desperate with this one.

We need his feet to hell up and stop playing around.

He's working hard.

I don't know right damn thing sometimes.

You have what's hard packed there is.

You've got to load it down there.

Armed with a high pressure washer.

I got a deep over here.

James is battled the cement like hard pack for nearly five hours.

He got something going today finally.

Oh, wait, yo.

Day on a boulder.

How deep are you thinking you're on right now?

Deepest point over there is probably five feet.

Five feet and you're coming up here.

How deep are you thinking you're on right now?

At this point.

This is about four, three, four feet.

From the point where you started until here,

how far do you think you went?

I'm going to say ten feet all the way over to here.

I have to.

You got some yards in the yard at your big oomph.

Frickin' James.

He frickin' ate through a lot of material today.

And he's putting us on our way to a solid trench

going across a whole creek,

which we are trying to find the gold line.

That was a lot of work man.

I can tell man, that's a long, long day too.

Alright, you're up man.

Cover up.

James has dug a lot today.

We have an actual dig site now.

Yeah we do.

Last two days, we didn't get very far without that pressure washers.

What happened?

Today was our first real dig.

That's what that was.

I'm glad he didn't get stuck on a boulder.

Oh, dug a hole.

Yeah you did.

Watch your head.

What?

Good job man.

That's a big area.

I can see it.

You've moved a lot right?

Sorry I was confused earlier.

That's okay man.

It was nice to use the pressure sprayer today.

The pressure sprayer is very productive.

There's just so much hard pack down there that it needs to be broken up.

There's gotta be some gold guys.

You've got gold on the bright man.

Not yet.

Not yet.

No gold today.

It's kind of what we have expected.

The pressure washers worked really well for them.

So, we'll get there.

Before the crew clock off, they must prepare for an incoming storm that could wreak havoc on their dive site.

We're gonna pull the hose up.

We're gonna have to put our desires in you can get it man.

Knowing what this creek can do with the floods that are coming, we're not gonna take any chances.

The weather changes so drastically around here.

We're gonna have to stay through some crazy weather if we don't get to the bottom of this because we know there's a lot of gold there.

Right now it's just a long push, long hard push to the finish.

We just have to go for it.

Over night.

It's a big day.

Three.

South winds 20 nuts increasing to 25 knots late.

Mother Nature serves notice that the end of the season is on its way.

According to the weather reports, it's not gonna slow down anytime soon.

It's supposed to be like this for the next two or three days, really.

You see this?

Oh, s***.

Land slide.

This is what's about to start happening.

You see all the b******.

Oh my god.

We're at saturation level.

Danger.

Very dangerous.

Brown's giving out.

That's what's about to start happening everywhere around here.

Oh my god.

That's not good.

The rain has saturated the high wall above the dive site and the threat of a deadly landslide

looms.

That whole section right here above us wants to come loose.

Can you imagine that getting buried, man?

That thing.

Buried a lot.

I think he only got a couple seconds left maybe before you get crushed.

That's like a frickin' domino's a death, man.

I'm trying to get that weird feeling that we're not gonna finish again.

I hate that.

In the beginning of the season, you feel like you got all the time in the world and once

your thoughts almost snowing around you, everything kind of goes downhill.

I get a little panicky right now.

Ah, come on, rain.

I just need you to hold off for another couple weeks and I'll be done with this.

Sounds violent.

Sounds violent.

Yikes.

In the remote Alaskan backcountry, the unwelcome signs of an early winter have descended on

Nugget Creek.

Look at that.

The thick of water is definitely up.

Look at that mud coming down.

It's washing.

Look at that.

Starting to turn different color.

The crew have a tough decision.

Dive under the threat of flash floods and landslides.

Or retreat and fall further behind.

Just when we're starting to get somewhere, we need to get back to dredging for gold.

Very clearly, we're starting to get behind.

Looks like we got another wave that's fixing to come right over us anyway.

And the waves coming our way.

It would be nice if we could do it today, but I'm afraid that...

I know in the past we've dug in conditions like this though.

I think we've been wasting more gas than anything, man.

I'm like you, James.

I'd still like to be down there because that's how we're going to find gold and we are running out of time.

I just don't like how we're running out of time.

I don't want to be like last week.

You're feeling it too.

I am too.

Right now it's getting to a weird place where we're running out of time.

I just heard about the snow up north, which is freaking me out, by the way.

I think they had a couple inches of snow already up north from us right now.

And I get what you're feeling, but it's a high risk day.

We do a lot of risky things, so this is on that edge of, you no longer brave.

You're being dumb.

What do you want to do?

I'm down for it.

Alright, so we're going to go ahead and dredge in this.

Let's do it.

There's definitely a fighting chance today.

You can't stop.

The winner is here already.

You have to find a way to put food on the cable for winter.

Gold.

Alright, let's get you in the water.

If I get you up, it'll be in a hurry.

You never know how hard it's raining upstream is the problem.

No.

Then water drops, uh, comes up.

We're going to pop you up real fast.

Copy that.

We're taking risks diving on days like this.

Reasing beam.

This wall of dirt right here.

If it gets any more saturated, if it comes down, all that, because it seems like a lot.

But that's a lot of dirt.

If that comes down, whoo!

The other danger, it's diving upstream somewhere, setting this up for a frickin' inland tsunami.

Anything changes, the diver has to come out.

No.

Just hands about it.

Alright, you should be good to go.

You good?

Yep.

Let's get to dive in, man.

Let's see what we got down there.

Copy that.

Storms threatening to win their season early.

Looks like they're still a hole down there.

Paul will put it all in the line to try and break through the cement-like hard path.

Searching.

For the Gold Ridge Center line.

Alright, Paul.

What's it looking like down there, man?

Not bad.

There is some kitty litter in the bottom.

A lot of sticks in the brain.

Good.

I'm gonna get the whole s*** tree down here.

I put all my eggs in this basket, and if there's no gold at the bottom of that basket,

then we're in trouble.

Pressure washes ready when you are, buddy.

Okay.

We've dug almost all the way across.

That's a trench right now.

Find the bottom.

Yep.

God, I can't get over how locked in on this s***.

What's this right here or what?

It's working with the sprayer right now, yeah.

Copy that.

I don't like it when it does that.

We're getting slack in it going up the street too much, doing something weird.

Dang.

I'm tired of s***ing.

Don't f***ing work.

What's wrong with it?

What's wrong with it?

It's got slack in it.

It's time I go upstream and try to pick up and then it...

Hey!

F***!

F***!

Hell.

Oh, f***ing.

You alright?

Ooh, look at his hands.

He's bleeding like crazy.

The weather just...

...is coming down.

Snowing on top of the mountain.

We'll see if I can.

It's a big pile of firewood.

He was warmer on the fire pit.

After a long wet day in the water.

Ooh, ooh.

I like to call this our campfire gold.

It gets cold, and we need to stay warm.

Alright, think that'll do it.

You guys look good?

Oh, f***.

He's bleeding bad, y'all.

Hey, how bad?

So, is this stits?

You got me worried.

You got blood everywhere.

Jesus.

That hit me a full f***ing horse.

Anything broken, busted, besides the blood?

No, no.

No, it tweaked me pretty good, but that was it.

I got a little bit careless today,

but I don't need stitches or anything.

Just pills here.

The day I was sloppy, I'm paying for it.

But luckily it was just a small thing, and I'm good to go.

Six hours into his dive, Paul is still searching for the gold-rich center of the creek.

Oh, the water's starting to get dirty above.

Looks like the water's changing a little bit.

You ready for a bath?

Watch out, huh?

Get out of there, get out of there, get out of there.

Ooh, it's not that wall that's coming down.

Holy cow.

Is that whole thing going to slip?

Get a little bit of a little landslide there.

Before the weather shuts them down, the crew needs to bank more gold to secure their mining future.

Sorry, I yelled at you like that, but I thought that whole thing was coming down,

or I didn't want you to get caught.

We need gold.

The winter's coming too quick.

We need gold now.

Everybody can smell the end of the season.

The weather is a constant reminder that the end of the season is almost here.

I've got this one big boulder right here.

It got me blocked in a little bit.

I'm not seeing a nice shift here, so...

It looks like you're at a thin mini-boarding right now.

A thin mini-boarding.

It's serious.

There's a bottle put on, cart pack underneath the boulder.

All right, well, clean up what you can on it.

And just clean up.

What I'm really interested in right now is where the bottom of the view is.

It's usually a little bitty bee that's got a little round bottom.

That's where the gold will be.

I woke up this morning while I'm starting to feel that.

I'm going to be a gauderer.

Don't fail.

Find the gold.

Don't fail.

Find the gold.

Don't fail.

Find the gold.

It's running a loop in my damn head.

I'm on the down screen side of that boulder.

Okay.

I don't know if I can feel bedrock.

Did you just...

I can't understand you.

Did you just say you think you found bedrock building?

That's what it feels like.

Ooh.

I don't feel like a boulder.

Yeah, I'm kind of curious.

But that feels like bedrock.

Do you think that big boulder is sitting on bedrock?

I think so.

So we might be on the bottom bed.

It definitely feels like it's slumping it off.

He's saying he thinks that boulder is lying on bedrock.

That means he's on the bottom.

I think that boulder is.

I can't reach the boulder.

I can't reach the boulder.

I'm putting this in my...

I'm making it into my past so that it's a little bit bigger.

Yeah?

I think it says something like that.

Yeah.

I think it says something like that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm glad you're seeing, buddy.

All right, back up.

We'll sit on that rock.

We'll get you.

I'm glad you're seeing, buddy.

All right, back up.

We'll sit on that rock.

We'll get you. We'll get you, right?

We thought of dealing with a ****.

That's a constant setback.

Please.

That's a lot of material in there.

Everything coming this way so locked up.

So that big boulder's down there.

Hopefully it's going to let itself go and we'll get it out tomorrow.

If we get that boulder out, it's going to open up a lot of real estate.

Hell yeah, dude.

That's what we need, man.

We've got to get to the bedrock.

We're just not going to make the end of the season.

Before it starts to snow flying, I need to find out what's at the bottom of this thing.

If there's gold down there, I need to know.

I'm getting a little worried.

If there's no gold here, or screw, this will be the end of it.

There's pace.

I have to do something to speed this up.

Next time on Gold Rush, White Water.

Ryan Herbs Gold Blaster, where I can roll.

This is exciting.

There's lots of gold, babe.

Do it.

Three, two, one.

Oh, no, no, no, no.

I don't know if one engine's enough, but we're going to try.

So right now he's on a time limit.

This is a very risky idea.

Everybody, cross your fingers.

He's going to get cold damn, damn fast.

Holy crap, man.

Three little pieces of gold.

Yeah!

Second Census!