Original subtitles

Forecast for Haines...

has been upgraded to a warning.

Excessive run off may result in flooding of rivers,

creeks, streams.

Be prepared to take action.

We got a...

some people would say a winter storm,

but in Alaska, we just say,

a storm coming through.

And it's predicted to be a big one.

Hey, fellas, we have a weather forecast, it's something awful.

Let's tie everything off.

Basically, if you think it can go downstream,

or get knocked over,

tie it off. All right?

I don't know what's about to happen

-'cause we don't know what this creek does. - No.

It can be up to here if... I don't know.

We're gonna have to pull back.

Yeah.

We have to make it back to town.

Nugget Creek, southeast Alaska,

almost halfway through his season

and Dustin Hurt could be just days away from finding

a monster pile of gold.

Gold is great, your life is more.

- Let's do a cleanout. - Copy that.

But inbound severe weather

forces him to evacuate his crew

35 miles back to Haines.

Yeah! That's what I want.

Here's fingers crossed.

That we're gonna have a site when we come back.

All right. Let's not wait for this water to come up on us.

Let's get out of here and go do a cleanup.

Let's see what's in this concentrate.

That's gold right there.

Is that gold?

Okay, man! That's awesome, man.

That's a pretty good old piece though, right there.

It's gonna happen.

Still got plenty of dirt to go through.

And there's another one.

Yeah!

Wow!

awesome, guys. I mean...

It's been a long time getting to this point.

We don't have to wonder if there's gold

- down there anymore. - No.

- This is gonna work. - All right, man.

We got a good clean, dude.

- Finally right? - Yeah.

All that other stuff, apparently, was practice.

Now, it's time to get some real gold.

The reason why they call it Nugget Creek.

Hopefully, this is gonna get better and better.

There's a storm coming in.

But it's okay.

We picked the right spot for the first time.

Finally, this is happening for us.

I'm talking about gold, gold, gold!

Now, give us the gold.

Yeah, this boulder is huge.

Dangerous. Dangerous as hell.

You die, it's not my fault.

I'm stuck already.

Whenever it feels like we're making progress,

something sets us back.

Body is failing, mind is failing...

- Why are you so mad? -'Cause I'm trying to help.

You just come over and took over what I was doing.

- Scott, look at this. - That's clay.

That lock in gold like vice, wouldn't it?

This makes me wonder if we're close to bedrock.

I saw a couple of little flakes.

That's awesome.

This is gonna be a game changer.

With 36 hours straight,

heavy rain and strong winds pound southeast Alaska.

Storm just came through, had to pull both crews out

for 24 hours for safety.

It's too bad, too because we just started seeing gold

and some good cleanups.

But we gotta get back out there,

find out...

what got destroyed and what it's gonna take

to fix everything up.

After gambling his entire savings

on his new Nugget Creek claim,

Dustin is finally on the gold.

But the merciless Alaskan weather

threatens to bankrupt him.

We're just gonna have to dig and dig

until winter hits.

The airboat I have is the only way up to Nugget Creek.

We need as much fuel as we can get up here.

So, I went ahead and got ahold of another airboat.

The more fuel Dustin can boat in today,

the longer they will be able to run the dredges uninterrupted.

Today, I'm taking another airboat.

It's different than the one Dustin has been driving.

It has an actual aircraft engine,

so it's a boat that was, basically, pieced together.

- Think it's going to work? - Yes.

Okay.

All right. Can you pull your boat up?

Got another barrel to put in here.

Going for broke.

Right now, we're attempting to bring

more fuel than we've ever brought.

Between the two boats,

Dustin's hauling in five barrels.

It's perfect conditions for this test run.

Scott, you're gonna be able to drive that thing or what?

Yes.

You die, it's not my fault.

Marine veteran, Scott, has volunteered for the mission.

But he's never operated an airboat.

Personally,

I wanna contribute the absolute most that I can to the crew.

The best way that I can see to that,

it's to take my experience on boats,

my experience driving a hovercraft...

All that.

You know, even racing ATVs.

There's not a lot of people that can drive an airboat up to Tsirku.

I feel pretty confident.

Let's go!

The Tsirku River can be as shallow as 12 inches.

And it's over nine dangerous miles up to Nugget Creek.

I'm stuck already.

Scott makes it

just 400 feet.

Well, that was a short one.

Damn it!

Woo!

At least, you're not dead.

The [bleep] were you thinking?

It said, airboat! I thought I could go on air!

Oh, that was embarrassing.

Woo!

Yeah!

Good job making it up here.

We also just got...

five barrels...

- in one trip. - in one trip.

- That... - That is actually pretty awesome.

- We're getting ahead. - Yes, we are.

And I don't have to worry about doing it all the time.

I'm glad you made it without dying, man.

That's a good plus.

Okay, I'm good.

We'll get the fuel out.

Over 200 gallons of gas safely delivered,

Dustin can now run his dredges

for four weeks straight.

Plenty of time to get to bedrock

and Nugget Creek gold.

Now, it's a mad dash to the dive site

to assess the damage.

What I'm worried about the most is the water taking everything from me.

I gotta find out what's going on.

You know, I'm worried. I'm concerned.

Are you kidding me?

Everything survived.

Looks like it anyway.

That's crazy, brother.

I never expected something like that.

Yeah, no. It don't look bad.

Dustin's dive site appears undamaged,

but the storm surge could have wreaked havoc underwater.

We wanna see if the hole got filled in. So, James...

James is gonna go down and find out where the damage is.

It was a good dive, man. I enjoyed it.

Last week, Carlos got them down to eight feet

where he started seeing gold.

I'll get in the water today.

James' mission...

check the dive hole

and get them back on the pay gravel.

Today, I just gotta try my hardest

to get us down to a pay layer again.

That's my goal.

I got this.

All right.

Try to get his hair.

Good?

I think it is filled in around four feet.

Ah!

This is how much it's filled in.

This type of

Boy, it must have really flooded. Huh.

- Man. - It did.

Saddle up. I'm gonna start dragging. Ready?

All right, man.

The storm surge has filled in over half the dive hole.

Now, James needs to remove 30 cubic yards of rocks and gravel

to get back down to eight feet

and a gold-rich layer

that should end in a massive pile of nuggets.

We're gonna go dredging.

See what the damage is.

♪ Two steps forward three steps back ♪

At this point,

we're so used to setbacks,

it doesn't even bother us anymore.

We just keep pushing and pushing and pushing and eventually...

we'll get back to where we were.

What did you do wrong?

You're standing out in the middle of a [bleep] damn creek.

Looking at a bunch of damn rocks.

It could have been a garbage bin.

Could have...

cleaned pools for a living.

Instead, I'm standing out here doing this.

It's some weird stuff, man.

It's some weird stuff.

Up ahead...

Never seen someone so small go so hard and so long.

Now, everything has starting to fall into place.

We're ready to see gold.

We're not that far from bedrock.

Don't even worry about the generator.

Well, the storm didn't mess anything up, so that's good.

On a successful second run,

Scott's airboated in the remainder of the crew.

Hey, Kayla.

- Can you help me down with this? - Yup.

And new equipment to turbo charge

the second half of their season.

We decided to swap motors.

We're kinda struggling with suction power.

Right now, we're running the motors

with smaller pumps.

And they work, but...

if we swap to the larger motors

with a larger, more powerful pump,

we can move a lot more material.

Right now, we're moving at a snail's pace

and we need to step it up a lot more.

That's gonna open up some territory.

Last week...

Kayla's crew dredge down to six feet.

I saw a couple little blades.

Oh

Here's another one.

The deeper we go, the better it should get.

Now, 40 percent more suction

will accelerate their progress

down to the gold on Nugget Creek.

Any amount of time we have left,

we need to get as much done as we possibly can.

So, anything we can do right now to speed up the process

is what we need to do.

I think, in the long run,

we'll find more gold with it 'cause we'll get to move more material.

Dude, we did that pretty fast.

I know, it wouldn't take too long.

It's definitely gonna help.

- Yeah. - It's gonna go that much faster.

Today's mission, make [bleep] work faster.

- So, you're gonna be in the water today? - Yeah.

What I'm gonna focus on today is I'm just gonna open the hole up.

Go down and uncover a lot more real estate.

The plan for today, expanding the hole.

Feel like I need a sword, like, I'm gonna knight you.

I know, right?

Sir Paul.

Kayla's crew already got the hole to a depth of six feet.

Now, Paul will expand the sides

and dredge down between eight to ten feet

where they expect to hit bedrock gold.

Here we go.

Feel good?

Good?

I'm excited. I can't wait to see what's down there.

Wow! So, there's a bunch of rocks back in here again.

Holy

I think another two feet.

That sounded really bad.

Not good?

Ah, it's all right.

I see all this fine kitty litter,

so we should be able to blow through that really quick.

600 feet down creek at Dustin's Golden Gate's dive site...

We're at about six feet.

Two hours into his dive,

James pushes through the infill from the storm surge.

Ah.

I'm just getting rid of all this kitty litter.

Oh, wow.

I'm looking at it, it looks fine.

I can't believe it.

Ah, this boulder is huge!

Eight or nine foot boulder, I'm on.

By about six feet.

I'm doing the splits on it right now.

This is how big it is.

I'll try to get rid of this sucker today.

The storm surge

has rolled a rock the size of an ATV into the dive hole.

Totally blocking James' progress.

They'll need to blast it to pieces

in order to remove it

before James can continue dredging down to the pile of bedrock nuggets.

I am ready to drill.

I'm ready for two powerheads.

James is trying to blast a part of rock.

There's no telling how much gold there could be sitting underneath it as well.

So, this will be a big win if we get this huge boulder out today.

Are you ready?

Ooh!

Holy That went up my butt.

- That was [bleep] great. - Holy

Didn't work.

Try that again.

Ready when you are.

Making any progress down there, man?

Did it break?

It's weird. They won't move.

It's weird, they don't wanna come out.

Only thing I can do is just keep drilling and poppin' it.

Just keep tracking it, man. I don't know what to tell you.

It's gotta get out of there.

So, find the biggest piece, you crack that.

Just shatter everything.

The blasters are making cracks

in the eight ton granite boulder.

But it refuses to come apart.

That boulder that I got right here in front of me

is I think, listening to James...

about half the size of what he's trying to break.

These boulders are kicking our ass.

Yup, ready for some powerheads.

I'll take both.

That generator is working?

Ah, yeah. That generator is working.

Just shove it in.

Okay. Diver ready.

How far you think you got with that rock so far, man?

Oh, man. Nothing's... falling off.

Seriously.

Come out.

Five hours into his dive,

unable to remove the monster boulder,

James calls it quits.

We just ran into this giant boulder,

it's turning out to be

another one of our nemesis

because it's not splitting in half,

like some of the other ones have been.

Which... that's what we need, so we can get it out in a timely manner.

This is... It's a whole different kind of boulder that's down there.

Some of 'em just split in half,

some of 'em don't hardly break at all.

Some break in a million pieces.

It's another challenge here at Nugget Creek.

But we've still got a lot to get through

before we get to all the gold that we know is here.

So, let's just keep on chugging along.

It's breaking, but not getting rid of itself.

So, I'll go down tomorrow

and we will find out what the situation is.

Welcome to my life when you look at a rock and go, "Huh...

There's three days."

That's a big deal.

But we're gonna keep going.

Too dumb to quit.

Too stubborn to stop.

It's just one rock.

It is right in the way.

I think, it's too big.

At Kayla's dive site...

The poweredge, maybe, might be strong enough,

but I don't know.

Dredging down, Paul is confronted with a huge four ton bolder.

It won't go.

Damn, that's frustrating.

Like Dustin,

Kayla's crew is now faced with an unmovable roadblock.

You know what...

I wonder if you drilled from the top

and drilled one from the side and break it off in chunks.

That might work.

The granite rock is so large,

Paul does not believe the blasters will fracture it all the way through.

Kayla's solution...

drill two blasters at 90 degrees to each other.

Detonating 'em simultaneously

should break off corner sections

small enough for them to winch out.

And continue down to bedrock gold.

Being in an area that has a lot of really big boulders,

it's really essential to have these underwater drills

because... the winches are great,

but they can only carry so much.

So, when you have really, really big boulders,

it's very vital to make 'em smaller.

All right, Paul, I have a drill ready for you.

Copy that. See if I can break the end of it up.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ready?

- I am. - All right.

Three, two, one...

That worked great.

choker.

Okay.

Take her away.

That's the last of it.

That was a big ass rock.

- All three of these pieces are from it, right? - Yup.

Hopefully, there's some nice nuggets underneath where that rock was at.

The one big boulder was kinda like a keystone.

It was locking everything in and around it and below it.

So, now that that's broken up, we can hopefully expose more area on the bottom.

So, we have a really good... really good day going so far.

Okay, take her away.

Paul continues to expand the dive hole

and push down towards bedrock gold.

Nice rock, buddy.

And go!

Yeah!

Looks like things are going pretty good.

Paul's got a really good dive going.

He's been in for quite a while.

About ready to wrap it up.

Yes.

Seven feet.

Five hours in,

Paul's expanded the hole

and dredged down to seven feet.

Just inches from where the crew hope to find gold nuggets.

I didn't expect to make the hole that deep, trying to get out.

You got heavy.

[bleep] you.

I'm full of water.

Getting that one rock out opened up a lot of real estate down there.

Good job, dude.

Hopefully, we got some gold in the box at the end of the day.

I don't see anything yet.

Hopefully, we'll be really close to bedrock and see some gold.

That's what I'm hoping for.

We'll get it.

- Yup. - We're getting close.

We're getting there.

We're making really good progress.

We're getting a lot of stuff moved.

We're getting rocks blasted.

This is gonna be a game changer.

It's gonna help us a lot in finding a ton of gold.

This is not good.

Carlos isn't here.

His family got sick.

At first light,

Dustin rush Carlos down the river

to tend to a family emergency in Haines.

I'm gonna have to, basically, fill in for...

Carlos.

I know this is not ideal.

Nothing else I could do.

With everything on the line,

Dustin's season is going from bad

to worse.

What's up?

How are you guys doing?

We had a really good day yesterday, we got a lot of stuff done.

Awesome.

My crew...

we're gonna have to step up our drill game.

Here's where we're getting stuck.

The rocks are so much bigger than we're used to.

So much bigger.

And we're used to just being able to crack a rock in half.

Take one half and maybe, crack it into thirds.

Well, we're gonna have to crack 'em, like, 15 times.

You don't feel like you're making progress,

but it's the only progress we can make.

I wonder if you drilled from the top

and drilled one from the side

and set it off, like... like this.

- Yeah. - So, you can break it off in chunks.

- Like, we did yesterday with Kayla. - Exactly.

- Instead of doing, like, lines... - Try to slice it...

Do one here and then, one this way.

So, maybe the cracks meet

- and just pop the whole chunk off. - Okay.

Sounds like a good idea.

- Let's do that. - Sounds good.

Kayla's proven double-blasting technique

could be the solution Dustin needs to get beyond the monster boulder

and down to bedrock gold.

Cracking rocks are going to be the name of the game here.

No one has dug these damn rocks.

So, underneath these rocks,

with any luck,

is gonna be giant gold.

Actual big, big gold.

All right. Here we go.

Let's get to the water, man.

Bringing a prayer here.

All right. Time to suit up.

It's gonna be a good day.

To get his season back on track...

Ready?

Crew leader, Dustin, takes matters into his own hands.

You like it tucked under?

Yeah.

Looks good.

You want the powerheads?

Thank you.

All right. Here we go.

Three, two, one...

Oh.

What?

Did it go?

Seriously.

I don't know what's going on with this thing.

Let's try this again.

Three, two, one.

Ah!

Ah, this is not working.

I don't know what else to do.

Wes has got another powerhead if you want that.

Yeah.

What is [bleep] wrong with this though?

Yeah.

Ready.

Three, two, one...

None of blasters will detonate.

We have power to it, but it's not popping.

Everything is plugged in.

We're not gonna move it.

All right, we need to fix this.

Are we done over here?

We won't be diving today.

You know, we'll get it figured out.

You know, what I think the problem is?

Think I figured it out.

The cable is ruined.

I can try to fix it by tomorrow.

That's what I needed...

To fail more.

Whenever it feels like we're making progress,

something sends us back.

The simplest damn things, too.

Come on.

Give me a break.

We need some gold.

We know it's here.

We need a win.

I'm looking forward to get in the water,

especially, since we did the upgrades on the dredge,

so we should have a lot better suction

which will move a lot more material.

Using the new more powerful motors,

Kayla prepares to dredge deeper

than they have ever dug at Nugget Creek.

Hopefully, we start seeing bedrock soon

because if we hit bedrock, we should see some gold.

Pushing down from seven feet,

bedrock could be just one foot below.

- Top first, top first. - Top one first.

I'm really excited to finally be getting in the water and get to work.

A little bit more.

Suction is way better.

I see it throw it a lot faster.

Yeah, those bigger motors and bigger pumps

were definitely the ticket, huh?

Yeah.

Definitely a good call on that.

How's it looking?

We're making good progress now.

He's chewing up some good [bleep] now.

Three hours later...

Never seen someone so small go so hard and so long.

People always say, dynamite comes in small packages.

There's living proof right there.

How are you doing down there, Kayla?

Doing okay.

Eight feet deep.

Reaching eight feet deep,

Kayla should start seeing signs of bedrock.

Scott, look at this. Come here. Hurry.

No

clay layer.

- Hot. - Yeah, man!

That's clay.

That lock in gold like vice, wouldn't it?

It just makes me wonder if we're close to bedrock.

That's what I'm wondering, too.

Down at eight feet,

Kayla's discovery could be a breakthrough.

Clay is formed of silt

which settles at the lowest point on a creek bed.

Meaning, she could be inches from paygravel.

It's amazing.

We're right there on that layer.

We're not that far from bedrock.

Closing in on her first big success of the season,

Kayla pushes on.

You're killing it, girl.

We can be getting real close to a good payday here.

Another two hours later...

She's definitely got endurance.

- Yeah. - I'll give her that.

Yeah, she's getting tired.

Yeah, you tell her she's tired, that she needs to come out.

I'm not.

Rock, paper, scissors, who tells her.

Probably gonna come up pretty soon.

All righty. I'm gonna pop up.

Copy that.

Diving for six hours,

Kayla has dredged beyond eight feet.

Deeper than either crew has reached

at Nugget Creek all season.

So, I got the hole all the way from... the hose that's here.

- Yup. - All the way up to where the hose is there.

And all the way to here.

Yeah, you moved a lot of rocks.

It feels good having a hole open up again.

That was a lot of work.

yeah.

I'm excited to see what's in the box.

I saw a couple little flakes.

That's awesome.

That's a good sign.

I gotta think that's some good material there, bud.

It's what I'm hoping for.

I'm pretty happy with that.

I'm hungry.

I need food.

We've had a really good day.

Gold in the sluices

and clay discovered,

Kayla's crew could be one dive

from a golden payday.

- You wanna hear something really funny? - A-ha.

You know, earlier, when we went to check the spark plugs

and I shoved 'em in here...

Apparently, I dove all day with a spark plug in my suit.

All right there, Sparky.

'Cause at the end,

my weight belt or something must have held it up higher or something.

- Oh - When I was getting undressed,

I was like, "What is in my shoe?"

- Got a spark plug in my suit all day long. - No wonder you were energized.

Now, everything has starting to fall into place.

We're ready to see what we came here for

and that's the sea gold.

And I'm starting to be a lot more optimistic about it.

Today was actually a really good day.

We got a lot done.

And I'm really happy with what we accomplished.

- Come on, Lis. Let's do your hair. Okay? - Okay.

Daddy, you have to wear glasses for my hair.

I gotta wear glasses?

I don't need glasses to do your hair.

I need glasses to read.

As the rest of the crew battle Nugget Creek...

Look, Daddy did it.

Carlos is home for a family emergency.

Mm-hmm.

My wife, she had to go back to California to deal with her mom.

She's sick.

And we're praying for a good outcome.

So, right now, I'm watching my little girl.

I'm trying to do two things.

You know, mining and playing Mister Dad. You know?

I'm gonna have to take a break from mining.

Gotta take care of the family first.

Well, I got some pieces I got to repair today.

Dustin's dive site is shut down.

West must fix the blasters

if they're to have any chance to destroy the giant boulder

blocking the gold.

These cables go to our blasting system.

What happens when they blow a rock apart, they...

they end up, some of the rocks will come down and crush these things.

Rocks land on this cable in there 'cause that granite is sharp and heavy.

It just cuts in two like it's nothing.

Got to see if I can get all of these repaired.

All I have to do is re-solder these in

to these little holders.

And all these years we've been doing this...

where we find large gold is always under these larger boulders.

If we can't blast these boulders,

can't get below the boulders,

we're not getting the gold that we're looking for.

Using a simple glue gun,

Wes insulates the copper cables,

so they can work under water.

Everything up here wants to break.

It's a never ending battle.

So, at this point in the season,

you know, even if we ordered more cables,

I don't think we can get 'em before we had snow and ice here.

If we can't keep the system working

and busting rocks,

then we're wasting our time.

Okay. I've got all the ones that I'm trying to get repaired

back together.

Okay, keep your fingers crossed.

Dustin's crew should finally be able to

blast apart the massive boulder.

There we go.

Another cable back in working order.

Today, I'm exhausted.

Need a break, we can't take it. At all.

Body's failing, mind is failing.

Gotta keep going.

I'm going down. I'm gonna dive.

I'm gonna try my hardest to get some rocks...

some really big rocks out of the way.

I feel really good about it.

Hmm

Another typical day the [bleep] don't work.

I gotta get this going.

How do you break rock without a generator?

No generator

means no electricity to the blasters.

Until Wes can fix it,

Dustin's dive site is at a standstill.

Hold on.

Hold on.

Let me take a look at it.

It has oil and everything? All that

Yeah, I changed the oil the other day. It's got fresh oil.

I checked it, it's pristine looking.

It could be the oil sensor could be no good anymore.

But I can't tell

until I can get into it.

To diagnose the fault,

crew mechanic, Wes,

needs to dismantle the generator's outer casing.

Now, I'm just standing around.

James.

Cut off the dredge, please.

Why are you so mad?

'Cause I'm just trying to help,

I don't understand what I did wrong.

You just come and took over what I was doing.

Listen, I can stand here and watch you

if that's what you want.

You tell me what you want.

Let's just call it a day.

Don't even worry about the generator.

I saw that coming.

I gotta get out of here.

It's way too much effort for no gold.

Halfway through his season,

a crew member down

and with constant mechanical breakdowns,

Dustin spent his life savings on Nugget Creek.

And has no way of getting to the gold.

He's cracked under too much pressure.

He's been telling us everyday

and it's been weighing us all down.

It's been a really trying year, we're trying to get in to get gold.

All we're finding are these huge ass boulders.

And so, everybody's patience is running thin.

Tensions are just so high, it's unbelievable.

This is a stressful situation.

I don't know how many strikes it's gonna take before Dustin says, that's it.

I think that was strike two.

I'm hoping it wasn't strike three.

I finally realized y'all are tougher than I am.

Up ahead, this season...

We've been out here working for three months

and still no gold.

If you stay with it,

this is what you're gonna find.

That's awesome.

Scott for Nugget Creek. Anybody there?

My boat's dead, we're in the river.

It's your ticket right into that wall.

Hold on, boy. Hold on!

Get out! We gotta go!

Go, go, go, go!

Right now, it's a waiting game.

We gotta let it run its course

and then, check the carnage afterwards.

Feel cursed here. Feel like this place hates us.

Beyond anything I thought was possible.

But too stubborn to stop.

Going back to our roots, man.

Scary diving.

I can smell the gold.

It's about time! Yeah!

There's a crack in the bedrock and I see a piece of gold.

We found gold!

It's right there!

We got gold!

I [bleep] worked my into the dirt for her.

We need to regroup 'cause we're on a steady path to destruction here.

This is our final push.

Get out of there.

That's gonna give us nightmares for fricking years.