Original subtitles

[narrator] Previously on "Blind Frog Ranch."

[Chad] [bleep] wild!

Whoo!

The team discovered a flooded cavern system...

That cave went way back there, all the way towards the ranch.

...leading to the Keyhole Chamber,

where they believe the Aztec gold is hidden.

But with the passageway blocked...

Chad and Josh begin searching for another entrance

into the flooded caverns below.

Limestone. We absolutely could have

an entrance to a cave here.

Uncovering a series of ancient trail markers,

pointing them towards the treasure...

[Chad] That looks exactly like a turtle.

[Josh] It really does.

[Chad] Is this not a bear guarding the cave?

...and a mysterious stone monument...

[Chad] Look how that's stacked up.

I don't see how it's lasted this long.

...where Chad and Josh found evidence of a fierce battle.

Look at that [bleep].

[Josh] That's definitely an arrowhead.

Somebody fired that at this site.

Suggesting that the Aztec gold is still hidden

under the ranch.

Treasure that big would not have gone

unnoticed or unrecorded.

That gold is still here. and we gotta find it.

[epic music playing]

Legends of ancient treasures...

This has to be hundreds of years back.

...and unexplained phenomena...

[Josh] What the hell is that?

...meet at a 160-acre property in Northeast Utah,

known as Blind Frog Ranch,

where Duane Ollinger and his team are digging

in search of long-lost Aztec gold.

[Ryan] Could the Aztecs have discovered this?

But the closer they get...

Finally get to hold [bleep] gold in my hand.

...the more the land fights back.

-[Eric] Poison gas! -[Chad] Go, [bleep], go!

Now Duane will move heaven...

[Duane] Here we go.

...and earth...

[Chad] Fire in the hole. Ah!

...until he gets to the bottom of this mystery...

[Duane] We've started this whole deal,

and we're sure as hell gonna finish it.

...and solves what's lurking below...

[Eric] Holy [bleep] There's something in there!

[bleep] Chad!

...at Blind Frog Ranch.

[insects chirping]

[James] Right up here?

[Chad] Yeah, right around the corner is that large rock.

Over the past several weeks, Chad Brad and Josh have been

tracing the path of the flooded underground tunnel that

stretches from Calamity Lake back to the Keyhole Chamber,

searching for any openings into the caverns.

[Josh] Take a full 360 around this place.

But along the way,

they discovered several Aztec markers...

[Chad] Point it right over there.

That looks exactly like a turtle.

[Josh] It really does.

[Chad] Is this not a bear guarding the cave?

...which led them to a stone monument,

where they found evidence of an armed conflict.

[Chad] Hey, right there.

[Josh] That's definitely an arrowhead.

[Chad] Could be in a battle.

That means, there's something of value here.

Something worth dying over.

They've named the ancient defensive outpost the Armory,

and believe it may be where the Aztecs fought

to protect their hidden treasure.

[James] If this was a defensive position,

there has to be an opening nearby,

that would allow them to come up quickly

to defend their civilization.

Or if this was an armory, there could be a huge cavern

below here, with even more weapons stored underneath

our feet that they would have used to safeguard the treasure.

[intriguing music playing]

With all those projectile points from the Native Americans

up there and that musket ball,

they were obviously fighting for that location.

So there has to be something

that they were both interested in.

I think that's the best place to run a GPR.

I mean, there's no telling what else we'll find.

[James] Right?

[Chad] You know, I'm thinking they must have had

a hidden opening that goes directly

into the treasure chamber.

I mean, why else would they be defending it?

[James] Oh, sure.

The ranch is kind of like a puzzle, with, say,

a million pieces.

I mean, at first, you don't know what anything means.

And it's like the clues start lining up, to where eventually

you can see this whole picture of what's going on.

My gut tells me that the entrance

to the underwater cavern system is up here somewhere,

and we're gonna find it.

[James] This would be a good path to take.

If we run it across here, if we increase the megahertz,

we'll get a better visual picture.

[Chad] OK. Alright.

-I'll put it at 40-foot for now. -Yeah.

OK. Yep.

GPR or ground penetrating radar,

uses high frequency radio waves to detect underground voids

or changes in the geography.

[James] I'm gonna bring it around this way and up.

By detecting a void below, they hope the GPR could lead

to a hidden opening at the surface.

[James] Any change?

Well, it's just showing layers right now.

[James] OK.

I wanna pull it up here...

'cause I see a lot of change in the topography.

[Chad] Something is opening up right here.

-Right here? -Yes.

Hold it right there. Hold on.

OK.

[Chad] Look at this.

So like, right in there,

it changed.

-Oh, yeah. -It's at 20-foot.

-And it was at 38-foot. -Yeah.

It's like, the higher we're getting up, it almost shows,

like there's a void right here. -Yeah.

Going 10 and then deeper on this direction.

Where do you wanna look?

We'll just scout this whole area and see if we can...

-OK. -...see any, any openings.

You can see through the rocks.

In some of these areas, there's, like, voids underneath here.

Right.

Definitely an opening.

[Chad] What the hell?

[tense music playing]

I do feel a little bit of air up here.

-[James] Really? -[Chad] Yeah.

Can you get in or look in?

[Chad] I can see, but it's just so dark.

[tense music continues]

There's more air.

Holy [bleep]

Come here, come here.

[grunts]

-Look at this. -[James] What you got?

This, look at this.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh!

[James] That shouldn't be here.

-[frog croaks] -[Chad] Yeah.

-What's he doing up here? -[Chad] I don't know.

[James] That shouldn't be here.

That should be all the way down at the pond.

The pond is an area on the ranch that is connected

to a large underground flooded cavern.

Fifteen years ago, when Duane first drilled into the cavern,

he released a colony of blind frogs

that had been living deep below the surface.

He named his ranch after the discovery.

It's still wet, that's what's weird.

We're on the side of the mountain.

That means this fissure connects down to the cave system.

It's the system we've been looking for.

It's part of it -- this is another entrance, right here.

-It's another entrance, brother. -[Chad laughs]

[Chad] So we've been looking for another way down

into the cavern system that runs from Calamity Lake,

beneath the Armory, and all the way to the Pond.

The only place we've seen these frogs before

was on the pond side of the cavern system.

So that could mean that this fissure goes

right down into that cavern system.

The last time the team tried to access the cavern system

through the pond, the water current was

too strong for Chad to safely dive.

But the presence of frogs exiting the cavern system

at the Armory would seem to indicate a way in,

where the current is slow or nonexistent.

Hey, where you at?

We gotta show you something, man.

[Duane on radio] Can you guys meet me at The Hideout?

Alright, we'll be right up. You're gonna to like this, man.

[epic music builds]

[frog croaks]

[wind blowing]

[Charlie] Yeah, that's him.

[Duane] Driving like a bat out of hell again.

You won't believe this.

[James] Especially where we got it.

-Look what we found here. -[Duane] What the hell?

[indistinct]

My man.

I never thought I'd see one of them son of a bucks again.

We were scanning it with a GPR.

And we saw some kind of crevice there,

and there were two frogs in there.

-They were wet. -still wet.

[Chad] Yeah, exactly.

[intriguing music playing]

Uphill in a dry desert.

And that's what's crazy to me, is why is it so wet

that high up on the side of a mountain?

This might be an opening to the tunnel system.

-It's gotta be connected. -Hell, yes, it does.

So that dag-gun frog is coming from that subterranean system.

That cavern must go all the way up.

You know, there's no doubt that these frogs are traveling

that underground cave system.

They're using the whole system, we're trying to figure out

how to get into.

Let's get a camera down that hole,

see where that water table is.

[Chad] Yeah, we can do that for sure.

[intriguing music playing]

[James] This is where Chad found the crack in the rock.

This is it, right here.

You can put your hand all the way down into here.

Back at the Armory, James shows Duane the opening,

where they found the frog.

I wanna see what the hell kind of cavern's down there, James.

I'll fire up the endoscope, if you can direct it.

Yeah.

[James] Alright, Charles.

[intriguing music playing]

[James] Feed it straight down for me?

Yeah. Yep, perfect.

It's opening up on the left. Go a little more to the left.

We're about ten feet down in this fissure.

Definitely seems like a natural vent, not manmade.

And it keeps going down.

Alright, I see it.

[James] Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait right there.

Hold on, hold on. Pull back.

A little bit more.

[intriguing, soft music playing]

[intense striking chord]

-Look at that. -[Charlie] Wow.

[James laughs]

It's not a fluke. There's two more frogs.

-[Charlie] Damn sure is. -[James] Yeah, yeah.

The frogs are wet.

-[Duane] Really? -[Charlie] Yeah.

So there's water close.

[frog croaks]

The endoscope confirms that the fissure goes deep

into the hillside at the Armory.

The frogs may have helped the team locate an opening

to the flooded cavern system below.

Hell of a find, boys.

See, we know that there's a cavern tunnel that runs

right underneath the Armory to the pond,

and the Keyhole Chamber past that.

So seeing the pond frogs all the way over to the Armory,

that's a major clue that this finish vent shaft

connects all the way down to that tunnel.

Hell, fellas, if there's frogs and moisture

all the way up here, we need to start drilling,

find that cavern, and follow it all the way to the gold.

I think them frogs are smarter than we are.

[epic music playing]

[epic music playing]

Drilling rig there, that's the most agile thing

I've ever seen in my life.

I mean, get in spots we could never get into.

[Chad] Here we are, Denzel.

This is the spot we wanna drill.

Right there is the Armory, right over there.

And then, that's where we found the frog.

We know that that cavern passes underneath the Armory.

So what we're thinking is to try to punch down

into that cavern, see if we can find it.

The only thing is we don't know exactly how deep it'd be.

Duane has called in drill master Denzel Roberts...

How much is that rig worth?

-$850. -Wow.

...to drill into the void

detected by the ground penetrating radar

that connects to the flooded cavern system below.

If they can get inside the Armory cavern,

they should be able to access miles of tunnels

under the ranch and locate the one that leads directly

to the Keyhole Chamber and the Aztec gold.

-[Chad] Let's drill. -Sounds good.

-Hell yeah. -Yeah.

[Chad] It's like a big remote control car.

The sonic drill vibrates up to 120 times a second...

[John] Pretty much, yep.

...making the surrounding rock temporarily fluidize

and behave like a liquid...

[Duane] Look at that.

...even when totally dry.

Pretty damn smooth.

The bit of the drill is then able to push through the rock

with a little to no resistance.

[Chad] If there is a void, or something,

we'll be able to see it.

Anything that's there, we'll find it.

[Chad] Nice.

Josh Feldman will check dirt composition

as Chad oversees the drilling.

[Denzel] Here it comes.

As they drill, the team will examine the core samples

coming out of the borehole for signs of moisture.

Let's see what this looks like at depth.

An indication that they are nearing the cavern system.

If the drill rig punches into the flooded cavern,

the team will then widen the hole

and lower Chad down inside.

[Duane] How's it look, Josh?

-[Josh] It's bone dry. -Yeah.

This first core sample is down about 30 feet.

No sign of the cavern yet.

Uh, if we see some moisture, it's gonna mean

that we're getting close to that flooded cavern system.

[Chad] Yeah, I say we keep on drilling.

We're gonna check that sample out,

but let's keep going. -[Denzel] Alright.

[Duane] Alright. Are we ready?

-Yep. -Alright.

[drill whirring]

-I'm hitting something. -[Chad] Yeah?

-Yeah. -That's 50 feet.

Let's pull it up and see what it is.

You wanna pull up, take a sample, see what it is?

Alright.

[intriguing music playing]

Pull the sample.

[James] Alright, let's see what we have here.

That soil looks a little dark.

[intriguing music winds-down]

Whoa! Hey, fire! fire back! -Fire!

[Denzel] You guys got a fire going.

[Chad] What the [bleep]?

[tense music builds]

What the [bleep]?

[Denzel] You got a natural gas pocket here?

[Chad] We don't know.

You think that's natural gas?

There had to be some spark coming from somewhere.

Well, I don't wanna drill any further until we know

what we're dealing with. -I understand.

-We don't either, shut it down. -Alright.

[Duane] We'll figure out what it is

before we start drilling again.

We should have Eric take a look at this core sample.

[Chad] Yeah, good idea. Let's get this over to him.

[insects chirping]

Chad has sent the core samples

to geologist Eric Drummond to analyze.

So what I'm doing now is I'm taking the sample

that the guys brought me and I'm gonna work it up.

I'm gonna sort it,

classify it by size,

and then, uh, see what it looks like.

The guys were drilling this boring,

and they hit this zone, and it exploded.

There are a number of things that could cause that.

Number one that comes to mind is just naturally occurring,

natural gas, they hit a pocket of that.

On the same note, if they hit a coal seam,

there is coal in the area, and there's oftentimes

explosive gases associated with coal.

It's a lot darker than the soils I'm used to seeing.

I'm gonna look at this a little bit further.

Put it back in.

See if it's flammable, so that I can possibly explain,

you know, the explosion in that hole.

It concentrated down to about this amount here,

and so we'll see what it is.

[intriguing music playing]

It appears to have some granulated carbonaceous

material in it, very likely coal or coal-related.

It's highly volatile.

If it sparks, it can just go off.

If you grind it against each other,

if it grinds against itself, it can also spark.

If this is, in fact, a coal seam,

those can be quite extensive, and it could be

under all of Blind Frog Ranch.

And if we did drill into that,

it could be just like a bomb, basically.

The work we were doing in there, that could have been

a really, really dangerous situation.

I mean, it could easily have blown up

while we were in there working.

So I'm gonna call the guys up because the next step here

is to test this material to see how combustible it is.

I want Duane to know just what's going on here.

[Duane] Eric, what are you up to?

[Eric] Well, I got something interesting to tell you.

[Duane] Oh, hell.

[Eric] So I examined the samples that Chad and Josh gave me

from the Armory drill site.

It looked a little bit different to me,

that loose soil around there, it was kind of dark in color.

-Yeah. -The results indicated that this is actually raw coal.

-[James] How dangerous is that? -It can be very dangerous.

It can still combust, it can still explode.

So we're gonna do a little test here

and see what we're dealing with.

I sifted this coal out from the rock, basically,

just to try to make it pure.

So there's mostly just raw coal.

[Josh] Yeah, look at that.

What's the chances of a light, though?

You might wanna take a step back.

[tense music playing]

Here we go.

[Josh] Whoa!

[bleep]!

[Chad] What's the chances of a light, though? I mean...

You might wanna take a step back.

Eric is testing the combustibility

of a coal sample pulled up out of the Armory warhole.

Coal and the methane it produces

are both highly flammable.

[Josh] Whoa!

Whoa! [bleep]!

Whoa! Ah!

[Josh] That's volatile.

-That's some wild stuff there. -Oh [bleep].

Yeah, it's volatile, that's for sure.

It's explosive, and we gotta be careful.

[Eric] I don't know how widespread this is over at the Armory.

Uh, could be a little, could be a lot.

Not good.

When coal is formed, it creates methane gas

as a byproduct.

Both the coal and the methane are highly flammable.

Drilling can release the gas to the surface,

where it can ignite and cause an explosion.

A fire at the surface can also ignite

the remaining coal underground,

causing a devastating subterranean inferno.

Once ignited, underground coal fires

are notoriously difficult to extinguish.

A coal fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania,

has been burning continuously for over 60 years.

An underground fire at Blind Frog Ranch

could potentially shut down exploration for decades.

Well, Eric, I think we've gotta go in there

and talk about this one.

[Eric] Yeah, let's come up with a plan.

[Eric] So the good news is that it's probably not very thick.

I'm thinking about a foot or even less,

so it's very possible

that we can still get in through the Armory.

That sample, it looked a bit patchy to me.

It doesn't look like a hugely thick deposit.

Well, you know, it's dangerous, but for right now,

I'm still in favor of us moving forward.

We’ve just gotta get down past that coal seam.

We've got the equipment there.

I think we're just right on the edge

of popping through a tunnel.

We've gotta find the entrance on this deal.

Our goal is to get into the cave system down there,

and that's what I intend to do.

I think what we'll do is move over just a little bit

and drill straight down into that mountain,

and see if we can find our target.

Duane's plan is to move the drill 20 feet to the east

to access the flooded cavern, but hopefully away

from the coal seam.

[Duane] I understand the risk. It's dangerous as hell.

We always have hope because everything we do

gives us more information, and now we know

what to look out for to stay safe.

I know, hopes are high for that entrance there,

but we've gotta be careful.

Now that we know to look out for coal seams,

I think, I hope, the risk is lower.

Personally, I don't wanna deal with it,

but at Blind Frog Ranch, Duane's the boss out here.

He's executing his plan,

unless I can show him a better option.

The most important thing is to stay safe on this deal.

It's no game, fellas.

Everybody goes home, I'll buy the beer.

Perfect.

-[Duane] Alright, let's do it. -[Denzel] Let's do it.

[Duane] Alright, here we go.

[whirring]

That's good, no coal so far.

Any moisture, James?

[James] I'm not feeling anything.

[tense music playing]

Hey, Chad, Duane, we hit coal.

Is that all you found?

Yeah, it came out of the five feet of sample core.

[Duane] Where at?

[James] It was at the bottom of the sample.

[Chad] Ah, this doesn't look like much to me.

[Duane] We're not gonna stop on account of that.

Alright, let's keep moving, fellas.

[Josh] We're drilling into a minefield at the Armory.

You ignite coal underground, it doesn't necessarily go out.

At this point, we're taking a risk,

and I think it's an unnecessary risk.

It's a shot in the dark,

and this whole thing could blow up on us.

We have no idea what's down there.

We just keep drilling that’ll damn sure tell us.

[James] It will.

The only way we'll know is if we drill it.

[Duane] Right now, we're looking to hit water,

but so far all we've hit was a little bit of coal.

Let's keep going.

Keep drilling, fellas.

You know, we could be a foot away from that cave,

or we could be 300 foot from that cave,

and we don't know how deep down it is.

To me, that means -- keep going.

[drill whirring]

Let's get to drilling. What do you think?

Let's keep going.

That's a lot of money and a lot of risk.

-God damn. -Let's move it.

The best things in life are the hardest things in life.

The easy path is no path at all.

Other people would go home, give up.

But I didn't get to this point

by letting a momentary setback get to me.

You just figure it out and keep moving forward.

It will be high risk, but there'll be a good reward.

So it's well worth it.

Maybe we gotta slow down a little bit

and get this deal done,

but we can damn sure be looking at Aztec gold by summer.

[tense music playing]

[drill whirring]

[gurgling]

-We got water. -We got water.

-[Chad] Water? -Water.

We got water, Duane.

[water bubbling]

[Chad] Holy [bleep], man. Hey, you got water.

[epic music continues]

Yeah.

Oh, yeah. That could be good.

The hole we drilled hit water.

You know, you're not gonna see me dancing around,

but internally, I'm happy as hell.

The team believes they have punched through the top

of the cavern system into the water-filled chamber below.

They will need to widen the hole with another drill

called a rathole rig to make a shaft big enough

for Chad to enter through with his scuba gear.

We just need to get a sample of water out of this.

We've hit water, and we gotta confirm

that this is our cavern system.

So we're gonna take a water sample from down below,

I'll go grab a sample jar.

[Chad] Alright.

[Josh] Odds are that it is our cavern system.

But we've gotta get it checked and for sure before we spend

$75,000 to get a rathole rig out here to widen that hole.

Here we go. Got it.

So this will tell us if we're in that cavern system.

[Josh] Bringing in a rathole rig

and widening the borehole right now,

that's super expensive, and it could take weeks.

This water sample matches the pond.

we know we're into the cavern system.

And I have another idea that I think might work,

and it costs a lot less.

We already have a shaft that goes down in the pond,

and we know that that cave system goes from the pond

to where we just drilled.

I think we go into the cavern system here at the pond.

We can then get in and go from the pond to the Armory,

and God only knows what other passageways

we might be able to find.

The thing is, there at the pond,

last time we dove that, that current was so strong.

It's like a riptide.

It was just, like, flowing so fast,

you couldn't even keep up with it.

Well, what about this? We pump the pond.

If we pump the pond, let it drain, and get that water down,

we'll be able to possibly get an entrance into there.

I think we get a huge pump in there,

I mean, one that's gonna move

thousands of gallons of water a minute out of there.

I mean, that's what I did with my gold mine.

Duane's been thinking about getting into this cavern system

like an oil man. An oil man's gonna wanna drill.

But I'm a gold miner,

and gold miners know how to manage water.

Look, I know that going back to the pond

is basically where Duane and Chad started.

That's where they first got into the cavern

and found the box.

[Chad screaming]

But that's why they brought me here --

to look at things with a new perspective.

It's maybe where I can help. I mean, mining, water,

you better know how to move water if you're gonna be

a gold miner or any kind of miner.

We can move this water. I know we can.

I don't know where the hell we're gonna put it right now,

but we're gonna have to figure that out.

But for less than $2,000,

you can pump that water out of there.

If we're able to move enough water fast enough and stay ahead

of the water that's coming into that cave system,

we're gonna create an air pocket in there

that we can possibly walk.

I really think we've got a good chance,

we're just gonna need a massive pump to do it.

Josh proposes bringing in a large pump to drain

the pond in hopes of lowering the water level enough

that Chad would be able to wade through the cavern

instead of dive.

Just as long as there's enough air in there

that we can get in,

I mean, we can explore the passage from the pond

to the Armory and possibly other passages as well.

[Duane] I'm not worried where a good idea comes from,

just as long as it works, and I think that's Josh's plan

makes a ton of sense.

So going into the pond is gonna get us

a hell of a lot closer to that Keyhole Chamber.

Yeah, we should get down there and take a look

at the pond and see what we can do to pump it out.

[Duane] Sounds like a plan. Let's do it.

[Josh] This is it. This is our window

into this cavern system, I'm hoping.

The thing is, we know the cavern system runs

all the way to the pond.

So that's why Josh's idea makes a lot of sense.

It connects to all the tunnels we're trying to get into.

We're just gonna need to drain it as much as possible.

[Josh] We move enough water fast enough,

we can possibly create an air pocket

down in that cavern that we can actually work in.

We can explore.

I mean, even if it's just a couple feet,

to get air in there, we actually can see

what we're trying to get into now.

That's a lot of water to store.

[Josh] Yeah, it certainly is.

We have to create a hell of a reservoir

to keep it if we have to store that water

instead of just let it go down the creek.

I feel like we could do a temporary storage pond

just right over here.

Hell, we could put a dam right over there

and dig out a retainer pit.

This pond is so [bleep] important.

And if we can pump that water out,

it's gonna be a whole lot easier and safer to get in there.

But this is thousands of gallons of water

we're trying to move here.

So we're gonna need to build a second catchment basin

to store all the water we're pumping out.

If we did this, this is gonna be the largest construction project

that's ever been done on the ranch.

-It'd be worth a shot. -Yeah, I like it.

To me, this is a very good solution

to get into that cavern.

And this is [bleep] my dad loves -- I mean,

if I was to tell him, "Hey, we need a catchment pond here,"

he'd be on it today, and I guarantee you he will.

I think that'll work.

I think all we need now is one of those big ass pumps.

-[Josh] Alright. -Yeah.

[heavy rattling]

-[Duane] Charlie Boy. -[Charlie] Yeah.

We’re fixing to walk this trackhoe

across right here.

Easy does it. You're looking good.

Yeah -- putting this dam up to hold all the water is risky.

You know, we're dealing with light soil

and it’ll give out from under ya.

But I do live for this kinda stuff.

I love doing things that I think are impossible

and that's the one I want.

Duane's plan is to build a dam in front of the pond.

He will then build a catchment basin,

a bowl-shaped depression used to collect water.

If the engineering of the project is sound,

Duane will be able to pump all the water out of the pond

and hold it in the catchment basin.

[Charlie] It's just loose sand, just like being on a beach.

[Duane] I'm gonna need somebody

to watch my tracks on -- on the outside.

[Charlie] Copy that.

Over the course of two hours, Duane moves

over 10,000 cubic feet of loose dirt to build the dam.

Both the dam and the reservoir must be compacted and fortified

so that water pumped from the caverns doesn't seep

its way back underground.

[Duane] So what we have to do here is

we gotta throw a lot of dirt and get it up to a grade

even higher than what we want the dam.

And then I’ll use the trackhoe to tamp it all down,

and that will give it some sense of compaction,

so it just doesn't wash away or something like that.

[Charlie] You know, it's gonna be like

building a sandcastle on the beach.

[Duane] Charlie boy,

they're gonna have to pry my ass out of here.

[Chad] Yeah, I wanna get this GPR up there.

While using the GPR near the Armory site,

Chad has a revelation.

[Chad] So I did the math on this.

If I do 30 seconds for every square foot of area here

to scan it, it would take 15 to 16 years.

And that's including weekends.

I mean, I don't mind coming out here a Saturday here and there,

but I like my weekends, bro.

We gotta find it, though.

It just takes time. It's a big ranch.

[Charlie] That's all pretty loose stuff,

and your tracks are gonna be right on the edge.

[Duane] Yeah, it's gonna suck, but, you know, the vibrations

of this machine will track pack it back a little bit.

At the pond, Charlie and Duane continue their work on the dam

and reservoir, designed to hold the massive amount of water

that will be pumped from the cavern system.

But to fortify the barrier, Duane will have to walk

the four ton excavator back over the crest of the dam.

[Charlie] I mean, your track's gonna be right on the edge,

and I don't wanna have to fish you out again

like I did last year.

You had to bring that [bleep] up, didn’t you, Charlie?

[Charlie] Yeah, I did.

[James] You're gonna be able to tightrope that?

I'll sink a little bit, James,

but I live for this kind of [bleep].

So don't take my fun away from me.

I won't do that to you then.

I'll watch as close as possible.

-Alright, let's do it. -[Charlie] Alright.

[James] Alright, Duane.

Charlie to James. Are you in position?

-Ten-four, I'm ready. -Copy that.

Duane?

[machine grumbling]

I wouldn't. I would not go down in there.

None of this is safe.

This was just built a few hours ago,

so there's no compaction in it right now.

[Charlie on radio] You're looking good, though, so far.

I mean, there's no collapse anywhere on this side

that I can see. I'll check with James.

Hey, James, how are we looking on that other side over there?

[James on radio] It looks like he has about...

10 inches to spare on the right.

[dramatic music playing]

[James] Duane, you're about a foot from the front right.

So be careful as you're edging forward.

Charles, it looks like he's almost to the very end.

Duane, you made it to the end, but be real careful

and slow, especially when you're turning it.

-The soil is just very soft. -Yeah, copy that.

So he's made it halfway to the other side,

but now he's gotta go back across.

The good part is he was able to turn the excavator around.

It looks stable enough for him to drive across,

and that's what he's doing right now.

[Charlie] Alright, I got, I got some loose soil that's moving.

Slow and steady.

I got soil movement on this side over here.

You're right on the edge over here, buddy.

Looks like Duane could be having a bit of trouble right here.

He's having to crawl left to right.

[Charlie] Push left, Duane. You're too far to the right.

[menacing music playing]

[James] Oh, this isn't looking good.

I got soil movement over here.

I got some collapse on this side.

[James] Duane, be careful.

Your track on the front left, it's over the edge.

Look how close he is up there. That's not good.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, Duane.

There's a lot more earth coming down.

Duane, stop!

[tense music playing]

Everybody back, back up, back.

You're on the side. You're on the side on the pond.

You're over the edge.

It looks like you’re gonna have to backup first, slowly.

Alright, yeah, you're on. OK, right there, you're safer.

You're past the stake two, in the front left,

so be real careful going forward.

[Charlie] Easy does it, buddy. Easy does it.

Duane's walking a tightrope

with a three-ton piece of machinery.

[James] I can see a whole bunch of fresh soil there.

[Duane] Copy that.

We’re good and compacted over there now.

A little bit more. You're good. You're good.

Next time on "Blind Frog Ranch."

[Duane] Oh. Dead arm.

The perilous project finally takes its toll on Duane.

[horn honks]

[Duane] Hey, yeah, come here.

Oh. My arm’s [bleep] up. I got pain in my shoulder.

Ah, I’ll get out of here somehow.

[Duane] Let’s get the [bleep] out of here.

-[producer] Yes, sir. -[Duane] Oh, my arm.

-[Chad] Yeah, what's going on? -[Duane] My arm's [bleep] up.

-[Duane grunts] -[Chad] Watch that, easy.

-[Duane] Alright, alright. -[producer] OK?

[producer] I think he may be having a heart attack.

[Chad] Hey, Dad, let's get in the car.

[producer] We gotta get him out of here.

[Josh] Chad's putting his dad in the truck.

[Chad] Let's get you checked out.

I mean, there's something really [bleep] wrong.