11x17 - Growing Pains

[bunniefuu]

[narrator] On this
Gold Rush...

-...late in the season...
-[expl*si*n]

...Tony Beets faces
an expensive decision.

[Monica] Oh, yeah.
That'll do it.

[Tony speaking]

We're losing


We're at the end
of the season.
Every second counts.

[narrator] Rick Ness' crew
faces devastating news.

I have a tumor inside me
on my lung. I got one on
my spine.

Talked to my doctor, he wants
me to go under the knife.

Everyone's on edge.
Break one of the pieces
of equipment here,

we are [bleep].

We're all in
on this right now.

[narrator] And Fred Lewis
and his band of brothers...

This Mayor's Cut could be
the last chance to hit
good ground.

-Holy crap.
-[narrator] ...go dark...

Looks like Close Encounters
of the Third Kind.

-[narrator] ...to save
their season.
-Whoa! Whoa!

-[rumbling]
-Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Oh!

[narrator]
King of the Klondike,

Tony Beets is fighting

through the shortest
mining season ever.

In the next couple of weeks,

the temperatures will plunge
below freezing

and his chance of cashing in
on record-high gold prices

will be over.

[narrator] To stay on track,

Tony has daughter Monica
running the wash plant

at the mega cut,
along with childhood friend,

an honorary Beets
family member, Ruby Mahoney.

Great as this material is,
it's been some of the most

difficult material
that I've had to run.

And all of these big rocks
are beating up our plant
really hard.

Oh, [bleep] me.

Hey, can I get somebody
on the water?
We're shutting down.

[plant stops]

- Kevin, do you copy? Kevin.
-[Kevin on radio] Go
for Kevin. Go for Kevin.

[Monica] I'm gonna need
your assistance.

[Kevin] Okay.

Went to get in my truck,
I looked over,

water flowing out of this one.
Water flowing out of this one.

And there was
so much back pressure

that these lids...

...that you see right here
and sit like so, blew up.

[narrator] The mega cut
trommel sifts out large rocks

and sends fine material
into a distributor.

From there, six chutes
evenly feed the sluice runs.

But large rocks
have blocked the chutes,

and the built-up pressure has
blown up the inspection lids.

You're literally blowing
material and putting it
right there.

There is not
in the sluice box,

which means that does me
no [bleep] good.

[narrator]
Monica calls on brother

-and master mechanic Kevin...
-[Monica] Oh.

...to get them back up
and running.

[Kevin] What chute
have clogged?

-This one?
-[Monica] These two.

Lids blew right off.

[bleep] like this
does not belong in here.

[Kevin grunts]

[Monica] What, Kevin?

[Kevin] Yeah.

I wanna see inside
the distributor box.

[Monica] Does it look
clogged from the top?

[Kevin] No. Looks all right.

[Monica] So either a hole
in the punch plate, or

the tailings are piling over.

[Kevin] Yeah.
One of those two.

[Monica] Take a look.
See, huh?

[Kevin] Oh. Let's have
a better look. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, that'll do it.

[Kevin] Huh? Yeah.

[narrator] A foot-long hole
in the punch plate

is letting big rocks through
and blocking the chutes.

[Kevin] Hey, Tony. Hey, Tony.
Can you come meet us

by the, uh, punch plate
on the trommel?

[Tony on radio]

Hey, Tony.

I think I found where
the rocks are coming from.

Well, Monica found it.

No.

[Kevin] Yeah.

It might be about time,
you think?

[Monica] I think
spend a couple days,

redo all the [bleep]
punch plate.

But then it's done, we don't
have to worry about it for
another 20 years.

[Kevin] If we don't
do this, we're just gonna
have progressively

more and more downtime.

More and more problems.

[Kevin] Yeah.

Sounds like a plan. Okay.

[narrator] First,
they'll remove the worn out
punch plate

and replace it with
six 8-feet sections,

then, weld the steel
sections together

and fix them to the trommel.

Welder Cody Hunter

cuts out the old punch plate
with an acetylene torch.

Heh.

[narrator] A hundred miles
east of Paradise Hill...

[Rick] Ruby. Come here, babe.

...Rick Ness and his crew
are gearing up

for the final push
of the season.

[Carl] She definitely
likes bacon.

[Rick] Oh, yeah.
She loves the bacon.

Bacon's her thing.

[bleep]

[laughs]

[Rick] You look like
you're about to fall right
to sleep anyway, Carl.

I don't think coffee
would keep you up.

[Chris] Yo.
[woman] Here you go.

What am I supposed
to do with that?

[woman] I thought you needed
some fruit in your life.

[Rick] No, he ate
an orange last year.

That's right. [laughs]

Well, should we get up to
work and continue on?

Yeah, continue ripping
on each other
while we're working?

Best time of the day.

[narrator] With just weeks
before winter shuts them down,

Rick still needs 300 ounces
to hit his season goal.

To get him there,

he's banking on the creek cut.

The gold's been nice
and steady unlike last year,

which was a giant bust.
Now this year just
feels different.

You know, it's, with even
everything we're up against
this year

it's got a better vibe,

and it's just going
much better.

But I still need to hit
my 1,000-ounce target.

As long as we don't hit
any major snags

or we don't get
frozen out too early,

I think, uh, I think
we're right on track.

[narrator] Rock truck driver
Chris Kruse

hauls overburden from the cut.

[Chris] Every bit of gold that
we get out of this new cut

is, uh, is gonna get us
that much closer to our goal.

That's, that's the objective
right now.

Get to our goal,

um, maybe even go
beyond our goal

and, uh, get us back home
to Milwaukee, man.

Lots of good food.

We're getting close enough
to the end here

that I can, uh,
I can more or less taste it.

I'm really missing pizza
from back home.[laughs]

I have not found
any decent pizza whatsoever.

Chicken sandwich,

tacos, crispy chicken tacos.

Oh,[bleep].

We are kind of crushing
the numbers here with
a small amount of people.

[narrator]
Operator Mark Doverspike

feeds the wash plant
with gold-rich pay.

It's been work,

and we've had some long days
and things have been good.

Like, we've been
getting along.

We've all been
kind of[bleep].

Chatting on the radio
and harassing each other.

It's, uh, it's been good.

I absolutely am here to

get a gold bonus.

Basically, it's in
everyone's best interest

to be on task, on time,
getting this job done.

Oh, my back.

[groans]

[narrator] Mechanic Carl Rosk

needs to get the second
rock truck running to keep
the plant fed.

Oh... Oh, yeah.

Yeah, it's,
It's been busy, man.

Like, holy smokes,
it's been busy.

Finishing off a rock truck
here that's been

broken down for a while.
So we finally got parts
for it. So...

You gotta fix the leak
up on the valve cover, so...

Just trying to
get it all done.

Mechanical stuff fails.

It just happens, really.
That's why I have a job.

So, gotta keep
the boys happy there,

and we're getting there
just slowly, right?

-[cell phone chimes]
-Yeah.

I just got a message here
from my doctor

that he wants me
to call him asap, so.

it could be something
to do with my back.

[man] You doing okay?

[narrator] Two years ago,

Carl revealed he had a tumor
growing on his spine.

[Carl] I've got a lot of stuff
on my plate right now, man.

I have a tumor inside me
on my lung.

-I got one on my spine.
- [bleep]

And I got to get it looked at.

-[bleep] man.
- Yeah.

Tumor? Like,
do you have cancer?

No. Well, that's,
we got to check it out, right?

[narrator] While the tumor
turned out to be benign,

it's left Carl
in constant pain.

[Rick on radio]
Has anybody seen Carl?

[Chris] I just saw him
peel out of here.

And he's heading out
towards camp.

What's up, man?

Yeah, I have a little
bad news here, dude. So...

Um, I talked to my doctor,
and he wants me

to go under the knife,
like, right now.

-Holy [bleep].
- Yeah.

It's, like, non-negotiable,
right? Like, it's...

-Special surgeon,
-So you got to go right away.

[narrator] Carl's surgeon
has a slot for him to remove
the tumor.

If he can get to the hospital
in Kelowna, BC,

a thousand miles away
in just three days.

And then it's, like, uh,
they haven't really been

telling me what kind of
recovery I'm gonna be, right?

Like, am I gonna be able
to come back to get
everything, right?

Because I got to leave in
such short notice,
right? So...

Yeah. Well, I, uh,
none of that should matter.

I mean, it's...
I've been watching you

[bleep] limp around for
last couple years, right?

-Yeah.
- It's about time.

It's gonna hurt us, like,
you're my[bleep] guy
here, right?

- Like, this place
doesn't go without you.
-Yeah.

-But...
- I feel like I'm letting
everybody down.

No, no, you shouldn't.

I mean, I was shocked
at first, Carl,

but honestly,
I'm happy for you.

- And I hate seeing you
like that. So...
-Yeah.

You think about it, Carl.
You won't have to do that
all the time.

I know. I can't wait.

[bleep], man. You'll be
back to backflips on
your dirt bike in a month.

[laughs]
I appreciate it, dude.

- I really appreciate it, man.
Thanks, Rick.
-Yeah.

-And actually...
-Yeah.

-I love you, buddy.
-I love you, man.

You're gonna be
a new man, Carl.

You're gonna be a new man.

You know, losing my mom
a couple years ago,

it helped me realize,
you know, that health is
really important.

And, you know, it's, uh,
it's about time he gets
that surgery

and it's gonna hurt us really
bad not having him here.

Um, but, honestly,
it's what's best for him,

and I'm happy for him.

[Carl] We're, uh,
heading to Whitehorse,

I'm gonna get on a plane
and head to Kelowna.

And we're gonna get
this done finally, so...

A little, uh, anxious,
I guess. But, uh,

be nice to be pain-free.
Leaving the crew

at the worst possible time,
but, uh, you know,

finally gonna get her done.
So, I am ready.

I will be back. So I'm
leaving my stuff all here.

I'm leaving my dog. So, yeah,
I got to come back, so...

Oh, yeah, I know.

He thinks he's coming with me
but he's not.

I'm sorry, you can't come.

Yeah. Thinks he's coming.

I'm sorry, buddy. You can't
come with me, you know?

I know, I know, I know.

[engine starts]

Last week, Tony had to leave.

I've got Stuart running water.

I got Stefan down here
digging dirt.

I got Alex up on the hill,

feeding the Colonel,
both loaders moving dirt.

Everything's going great.

We're back to business.

[narrator] In Oregon's
Elkhorn Mountains,

ex-Special Forces medic
Fred Lewis

is fighting to keep
his dream alive.

Last week,
Fred opened up a new cut

on the site of
the old Mayor's house

in the hope of finding
virgin ground.

[Fred] This Mayor's Cut
could be

our last chance
to hit good ground.

[narrator] If Fred's hunch
proves right,

the new cut could turn
his season around.

We're all in
on this right now.

[Kyle] Got a nice system
set up.

Well, we're able to keep up
with the two excavators.

[narrator] Kyle Pletzke
uses the 988 loader

to run paydirt through
the grizzly bars

to filter out heavy rocks.

[Kyle] I've got this
big old dinosaur,

and she can
really move the pay.

Seems to be going really well.

[narrator] In the smaller L60,

foreman Kendell Madden

transports the pay
to the wash plant.

[Kendell]
Moving a lot of dirt.

Operating nice and smooth.
That's what we like to see.

[narrator] Former Sergeant
Stuart McKenzie

is on water duty.

[Stuart] Kind of
inherited the pump.

It's a pain in the a*s.

But I've kind of become
a jack of all trades,

master of none.

To whatever comes to mind.
So I have done a little bit of
everything, so...

Kind of sucks, though,
because, uh,

we really don't have that much
gold at this moment in time.



Copy.

Yo, what the [bleep]?

[bleep]
This thing's overheatin' bad.

Fred, yo,
we've got an issue, dude.

This thing is overheating.
It's bad.

Well, that is going to
[bleep] up things,
if that's not a quick fix.

Holy crap. Listen to it.

-Whoo!
-That sucks.

Yeah, it could be
a water pump,

but we could be losing it
to, uh, bad head gasket.

That's a cheap part.

However, timewise,
it could be weeks

to get that thing torn apart
and get everything here
that we need.

-That's if they have the part
anywhere near here.
- Yeah.

[narrator]
Without a licensed mechanic

Fred and his crew must
battle through on their own.

Let's not cry over it.

Uh, reality is we're gonna
have to use the Volvo
for everything now.

We'll just have to
keep it moving.

Just look at our bucket
standing here, man.

I mean, I've got less than
half the amount of yardage

that I can move at one time.

[narrator]
With its three-yard bucket,

the L60 is less than
half the size of the 988.

Okay, well,
I'll put my head around this.

In the meantime,
do what we gotta do

to keep this
one moving all the time.

I'll give it my all.
I'm not saying I won't,

but I just want you to know
ahead of time

that I don't want this
to fall on me

if we start falling behind.

No, it's not going to
fall on you.

It's going to fall on the fact
that that has
a 10-yard bucket

and that has a 3-yard bucket.

[engine starts]

I've got more pay than I could
put through the plant.

That's probably
the worst thing
that could happen.

If I can't put pay
through the Colonel,

I'm not going to get any gold,
and the season's over.

[narrator]
Kyle now faces
a Herculean task.

[Kyle] I'm just gonna have to
fly around here as fast as
I can and try to keep up.

We've got to come all the way
around top road...

It's basically locked in.
Got overburden on one side,

pay on the other.

It doesn't leave any room
for me to hop in.

[narrator] He has to collect
pay at the Mayor's Cut,

take it 100 yards
along the upper road
to the grizzly bars

to filter out heavy rock,
then run it to the plant.

For every five trips,
he must take away
one load of tailings,

return along the upper road,

and dump in the old Swamp Cut
before starting over again.

Thank you.

Just kind of constantly
on me to keep moving,
keep moving, keep moving.

I got to go all the way
back to the opposite side
of the mine...

get this pay
over to the grizzly...

Right now this motor won't run
fast enough for me.

I still have to be safe.

Gonna run it through
the grizzly. Pull it out
of the grizzlies.

From the grizzly's
to the pay pile.

Now for the tailings.

It's probably
a 10-minute round trip.

Kyle was really having
to work like a madman
trying to keep up.

I kind of feel bad...

The faster I load,
the more tailings I make...

And, uh, well,
the more he's got to work.

Three buckets left, Fred.

We're out of dirt!

All our pay's been already
processed through the Colonel.

We gotta shut her down early.

It's soul-crushing
'cause everything's
working right now,

but we just don't have pay
'cause we don't have
the machines.

Stuart, shut the water down,
buddy!

[Stuart] What the[bleep] now?

We're out of pay, man.

[Stuart] Already?

- It's not possible, is it?
-Sucks, you know?

[bleep] Damn it.

We're going to have to do
something else.

Keep that Volvo running
full-time.

We're gonna have to do
night shifts, I think.

That's the only way to do it.

Yeah.

Stockpiling day and night,
keep the plant up and running.

So I'm going to put you,
Kendall, and Alex.

'Cause you guys all have
the most experience.

Give it a good week.

Let's just do a whole week
of night shifts
and see how that helps.

- Gotta do something, man.
-All right, man,

All right.

Decided it was
the best thing to do.

Pretty much going to try and
keep things moving constantly.

If we can stockpile enough pay

and we get everything set
so the night crew could run...

pull every bit of dirt
out of here we can.

[narrator] To get the plant
back up and running,
Fred orders a split shift.

The day crew uses
the loader to stockpile pay.

Then, the late shift will use
the same loader

to feed the wash plant
and remove tailings.

[Fred]
How's it going? It's Fred.

[narrator]
Fred calls the claim owner
who leased him the 988.

Well, good and not good.

Everything is going good,

except... I think
the 988 is done.

Um, Kyle, being the one
that operates it the most,

seems to think
it's the head gasket.

[owner over phone]
Well, I don't know
what to tell you, Fred.

It's gonna take three weeks.

So what do you want to do?

All right. Well, let me
get back to you,

and we'll talk about it
in a little bit.

[owner] All right.

[bleep] that.
I'm just gonna use the money

that I would have used
in that [bleep] loader

to get another one.
He's not getting it done.

[narrator] With enough pay
stockpiled to run
for at least five hours,

it's time
for the first night shift.

All right, everything's
looking good, gents.

Pretty sunset on the mine,
but you know what?

I don't have enough time
to look up and enjoy it.

Got to keep my nose down
on the ground and...

keep on working hard.

Down here
at the Mayor's Cut now,

the longer we can run,
better chances we have

to find as much gold
as possible.

You know, running this
without Carl, is just, uh...

it's so beyond not ideal
that it's not even funny.

You know, it's flat-out scary.

[narrator]
At Lower Duncan Creek,

mechanic Carl Rosk
has left the claim
for urgent surgery.

Carl, you know,
my buddy, my mechanic,

and he's, uh...
he's gonna be
sorely missed.

Man, it's just, uh...
I'm not going to
let my guard down.

I'm very, very aware
what time of year it is,
and how every second counts.

I miss the guy.
It's not easy not having
a friend here

and not having a buddy
to work with.

And so is not having
a mechanic.

It's really, really
not fun either.

We're gonna have
two down rock trucks,

so everyone's on edge...

not to break anything.

'Cause you break one of
the pieces of equipment
here, we are [bleep].

I'm not a full-time mechanic,

I can't run the computers.

I can do small fixes,
a little bit of welding,
a little bit of wrenching...

To bring up
another mechanic here is...

It's a... it's a long call,

especially at the tail end
of this season right now.

We lost a day's...
we're losing thousands
and thousands of dollars.

We lost Carl, which is,
uh, super unfortunate.

You know, if he's not
busy pulling wrenches,
he'll jump a machine.

You know, he'll do
whatever needs to be done.

And that's what
we're gonna lose.

What in the[bleep]
is going on here?

Why will you not dig?

[bleep]

[bleep] Gotta be kidding me.

Something's going on
with the bucket on this thing.
Damn it!

[Rick] I'm in the 700, yeah.
Something's going on
with it now,

I'm going to need you
to come out here
and take a look at this thing.

[Ben on phone]
On my way, boss.
Heading there now.

[narrator]
At Lower Duncan Creek,

Rick Ness
is without a mechanic

and his 700 excavator
is down with a broken bucket.

Former pipefitter Ben Bellai
is the only crew member

with enough welding experience
to attempt the fix.

This is the spot where I had
Carl fix it last time.

Yep.

He did not want to do it
'cause it's not right.

So unfortunately,
we're throwing one more
[bleep] Band-Aid at it

before we fix it right.

[narrator] Two months ago,
Carl welded the collar back on

when it failed the first time.

How do we get this to work?

Weld, weld, weld
to make it tighter, right.

Just trying to build this up
more... ugly.

I'll send this bucket out
for you to fix properly
this winter,

but we just need to get this
[bleep] bucket off,

re-weld this collar back on,

just like Carl did,

and slam it back in service.

-[Ben] Sounds good. Get ready.
-All right.

[narrator] The bucket
on the 700 excavator

is connected to the arm
by two pins

and secured by welded columns.

Carl's weld has failed,
causing the pin to loosen,
making a bucket unusable.

Now Rick and Ben must attempt
to re-weld the collar.

Harder.

[Rick]
We should be out in the field,
moving dirt, you know.

It's a big push here
at the end of season.

You know,
Carl's off to get better,

and it's up to us
to keep things going.

I mean, uh, we have to finish
this strong for him, you know?

How are you, buddy?

Missin' his Dad.
Look at that sad face.

Oh, the tow hauler
just pulled in.

Good.

Perfect.

Yep.

There we go.
[bleep] yeah, buddy!

[Rick] Bingo.

[bleep] yeah!

The collar, boss,
is gonna go back
onto this side right here,

and it's gonna be
all lined up.

This is gonna be flush
to kind of look like this.

-Let's make it happen.
- You got some work.

Every minute
that this machine's down,

we're falling behind
out on the cut, right?

And at the end of
the season like this,
it's not where you want to be,

like, we had so much
[bleep] happen,

we had to scramble,
like, to get this
creek cut going,

like, we're barely...
barely staying ahead.

And something like this
could, uh, you know,
derail everything.

So we need to get this thing
hammered back together quick

and get it back out
in the field, digging.

I can smell my hair burning!

Let's start doing
some grinding.

Sent a little
video of Champ to Carl

while he's waiting
for surgery,

-His dog being a...
absolute maniac...
-[barking]

...like normal.

So, this is all
cleaned up now,

all the welds are gone,
it's level and all
we have to do

is put the pin in through here

and line everything up,
tack all around it
and weld her up.

-All right. Ready?
-Yeah.

Nice.

[soft grunt]

[chuckles]

It's looking pretty good.
Not that much play.

Okay. [chuckles]
Okay, I got to go work.

Stop it.

Yeah.

Looks fine.
Should go back together.

Just gonna take
a hell of a lot of heating
and welding,

and it should do the job.

Holy [bleep].

Your dad is
not gonna be happy.

[welding continues]

A lot of uh...

A lot of a lot of work
to get that thing done.

I think Carl would be
happy about it.

[bleep] yeah.

He'd be even happier
that he didn't have to do it.

[grunting]

[bleep] yeah.
We got it, buddy.

-[bleep] Nice job.
-Yeah.

Nice work.

Why the [bleep] do I even have
Carl here?

[laughing]

[narrator] Thanks to
Ben's welding skills,

the 700 is back in the game,
and Rick is back on the gold.

Oh, yeah, This turned into
quite a [bleep] project, eh?

[narrator] At Paradise Hill,

with the mining season
slipping away,

Tony Beets' operation
has been down for five days

as Cody and Brendan race

to finish welding
the new punch plate
into place.

Do you want to weld these,
Tony?

[Tony speaking]

[narrator]
They've only completed
two-thirds of the project.

[Kevin] So, I did the math.
It works out to about


That's more than most folks
bring home in an hour.

We're losing that
every minute
the plant's not running.

Assuming only getting
a single ounce per hour.

If we're getting
two ounces, it's double.
Three ounces, triple.

So hope you all can understand
why we're a bit keen

to keep the plant going
as much as possible
in the limited time we have.

Oh!

-The old fellow is not
real [bleep] happy about it.
-No.

Sucks being down.

Yeah, all right.
Let's hit her.

[narrator] Day six, and still
no gold to show for the week.

[Kevin] Yeah.

What do you wanna do with
these end pieces here?

Nothing?

Okay.

All right.

[narrator] Already down
$300,000 in lost gold,

Tony wastes no time
getting the trommel
back up and running.

[engine starts]

[Monica] Super-excited to
get back to sluicing.

[Kevin] All right, copy.
Firing up.

Let me know when
the water shows up.

[expl*si*n]

[narrator] At Paradise Hill,
Tony Beets is ready

to fire up his trommel
after six days of repairs.

[expl*si*n]

[Tony laughing]

[Monica] Yeah,
real refreshing.

So we've always had a little
bit of a leak where this

hose and valve connect
to the 12-inch pipe there.

But, uh, I guess it decided
when everything was shut off

that it was gonna be
[clicks tongue] extra loose.

Okay.

[Monica] Super-cool.

I see a huge pile of pay
in front of us,

so that's movement
in the right direction.

[narrator] At the Elkhorn
claim with just one loader,

Fred Lewis' crew
is working split shifts

in the hope of a big payout
from the Mayor's cut.

I know this next few weeks,

it's actually pretty crucial.
I'm a little bit nervous
about it.

If we don't get anything,
we're screwed.

Oh, I see they put some
more boulders in here.

[narrator]
Using the two excavators,

Khara, Stuart and Stefan

stockpile pay
during the day shift.

We've got high expectations
for what we need to get
done here.

[narrator] Back at camp,
Kyle, Kendall and Alex

are ready for another night
of feeding pay to
the wash plant.

-We'll get up there.
-We got some work to do.

Let's go do it. Can you
throw me my jacket there?

-Freaking cold.
-Yeah, it's a little nippy.

Got to give it up to Alex
and Kyle, they're busting
their asses.

Love it.

[Alex on radio] Bucket
number 100 in the hopper.

[Fred] Woo! Yee-haw!

To be keeping things
moving along smoothly...

...sometimes we even
impress ourselves.

Looks like Close Encounters of
the Third Kindor something.

Seems like we're doing well.
We're doing things right.

And we're working well
together as a team.

So far, so good.

We've got a lot going
against us right now,

but for the most part
we're running.

That's all that matters.

Whoa! Whoa!

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

Oh!

-Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!
-Stop, stop, stop, stop.

Dude.

I don't know if
a rock slipped out
under there or what.

Their shift is getting
a little tired or something.

Dude, my fricking heart
is racing.

All of a sudden
I'm just look over

and I just see
your whole thing

just start teetering sideways.

I think you might have to help
me back out of this, dude.
This is a little sketchy.

All right. Yeah.

We got it. Just straight back.

Let's not do that again,
please.

-Yeah. I'll try not to. Man.
- Sketchy night.

Stay safe.

Scared the living [bleep]
out of me.

Yeah, that makes two of us.

[bleep] Let's, uh, let's keep
all the wheels down on
the ground, please.

Yeah, sounds good, bro.

Doing the night's been
difficult and, you know,

been really wearing
on me personally.

Go ahead and fix up
the old 988.

Not sure that's an option.

[narrator] With his crew
on their last legs,

mine boss Fred
has taken action.

When I say all in,
I mean all in.

I'm gonna invest
every penny I have

to make this
season successful.

If this doesn't work,
I'm gonna go down fighting.

[narrator] Instead of
taking three weeks

to fix the 988,
he's leased a replacement.

[horns honking]

Look at what we got.

[laughing]

Wow! Look at the bucket
on that bad boy.

-Oh, I know.
-That's [bleep] great.

-[horns honking]
-Looks like we got
a new loader.

[narrator]
With a 5-yard bucket,

the 380 can do nearly twice
the work of the L60.

We gotta finish out the season
strong, and that's the way
to do it.

[honking]

Whoo!

-Okay.
-[groans]

-Ta-da!
-Yeah!

Awesome.

-That bucket's gonna help.
-Check her out.

Five versus the three.

So we get almost double.

I didn't even look at it.

I called them and I said, uh,
"I need a loader." And they're
like, "What kind?"

Like, "I want the biggest
bucket you have delivered
to this spot."

-All right.
-We got her to the end
of the season.

-Really?
-We can go get it dirty.

How many burnouts
can we do in these tires?

At least one real good one.

[all laughing]

[Fred] All right,
let's fricking fire it up.

[all] Let's go get us
some gold!

-[all whooping]
-Fire it up!

[narrator] In the 380, Kyle
gets back to stockpiling pay

and clearing tailings.

Oh, yeah.

Feels good to have a little
power under my butt again.

Should be able to
be pretty easy

to finish out the season
in this big thing.

So we need to find
a lot more gold.

[narrator] And Kendell uses
the second loader

to run the pay to the plant.

The Lewis crew is back
to running Mayor's cut pay.

We got this new piece of
equipment and I could tell
morale is high.

Kyle's super-happy.

We're gonna be moving a lot
more efficiently around
the plant.

We got a bunch
of stockpile pay.

We've got more pay
in the hole to come out.

It's ready to rock and roll.

Hey, let's fire it up.

[narrator]
At Scribner Creek...

We have a very high bar here

as we're a tight-knit group
that get a lot done

and we don't have time
for screwing around.

I just don't want
anybody around here
to get comfortable.

-To not sluicing.
-Yeah, man.

[narrator] Tyson and Alec
find a new use
for an old tailings pond.

Whoa! Pretty nice.

Dreamin' of Mexico.
right now, that's for sure.

Hey, hey.

Wow.

[narrator] After six days
of repairing their trommel,

the Beets finished their week
empty-handed.

We had rocks in the chutes,
meaning they were falling
through the punch plate.

We did find some holes.

-Yeah, eventually.
- Yeah.

But guaranteed every time
you stop the trommel and
look for holes, they're

- under the few rocks
you left.
-Every time.

Well...

You know, it's too bad because
we're around 2,300

and it would've been nice
to do a gold play this week.

You need to fix it.

[narrator] If history
repeats itself,

winter will shut down Tony
in just two weeks,

but he still needs 700 ounces
to hit his season goal.

I mean, we don't have any gold
to weigh, so you guys
might as well go back at it.

Get me some gold
for next week.

Yeah, Mike,
get your trommels looked at.

Yeah, Mike.

[Minnie] Bye.

You better have
some good news, man.

I always have news.

Well, I mean,
gold is good news, right?

You guys want to see?
Yeah, it's rather do this

-than talk about all
the [bleep] to go through.
-[woman] Agreed.

[narrator] Down a loader
for the week, Fred's crew ran
at half capacity.

That one's shiny.

-Nice
-Couple good flakes.

[narrator] The mayor's cut
is the third cut
for the Lewis crew.

They need it to pay off.

Not as much, guys, but 0.24

Worth just $456.

bringing Fred's season total
to 2.98 ounces.

Well, not super-happy
about this week,
but I think that, uh,

how many more things
could go wrong?

-Oh, let's not! Let's...
-[woman] Don't even say that.

We were kind of expecting
a low one this week, but...

Keep on soldiering on anyway.

We don't have a lot of time
left here.

[narrator] The Mayor's cut
is better than
both previous cuts,

but Fred and his crew
will need more than ten times

this much gold
to save their season.

I think at this point,
any waste of time is bad.

We need to use every second
we have of every day
at this point,

and just try and put
as much much through
the plant as we can.

-I don't like it, but...
-This is why we're here.

-Yeah.
-Let's get back to work.

-Back to work.
-Let's do it.

if we can keep the plant
up and running

and not have as many issues
as we had last week,

we'll get more gold, but right
now, this total's lower
than the last.

Any obstacles
to come at this point,

we're just going to punch 'em
in the face and keep moving.

Paydirt, plant, gold.
That's pretty easy.

[sighs] Oh, you got me a beer?
Thanks.

It's just always a bummer of
a week when one of your
friends goes down, right?

I did speak to him, uh, today,

and it's actually...
Didn't go that good.

Supposed to be, like,
six to eight hour surgery,

and you go home that night,
and it didn't go that
way at all.

Um, I don't know what
happened, but he was in there
for over 12 hours.

-[bleep]
-[Karly] Holy[bleep].

Yeah, and, uh, and he sure
as hell didn't go home,
like, he's still there.

And they don't know
when they're gonna
let him out.

[chuckles anxiously]
Surprisingly,

or not surprisingly, I mean,
he's in good spirits.

Yeah.

Hopefully, after he recovers

he'll be
a spry young man again.

Hopefully, you know,

the result of this
is a much better Carl.

-He's tough. [chuckles]
-Yep. [chuckles]

And you can't
put him down that easy.

-No.
- You know,

do we have a plan in place?

Like, what are we gonna do?

We're just trying
to take care of our stuff.

If something breaks,
hopefully it's nothing, major

and we can all
get together and fix it

and keep going 'cause
we're so close to the end.

On another note,
we did still have work to do,

and we still have
gold to weigh.

And this pan feels
pretty heavy for me...

Whoo!

All right.
Well, let's weigh that up.

[narrator] At an average
of 63 ounces a week

in the creek cut,

Rick has fallen short
for the past two weeks.

He needs 77 ounces this week

to get back on track to his


Forty, 50, over 60.

Just over 60.

- Oh, yeah.
- Nice!

-[Karly] Sweet.
-60.46 ounces.

[narrator] Worth $115,000.

Rick and his crew
land short of their goal

for the third week in a row.

In order to hit 1,000 ounces,

they need to pick up the pace

before winter
freezes them out.

Well, cheers to Carl's health.

Yep, Carl's health.

- Cheers to that.
- Cheers, boys.

[man] Yeah.

I've known Carl 19 years now,

and there's no way
this guy's not coming back.

He's got more titanium in him
than, like, Terminator.

He'll be back.

Well, on the surface right now
I'm scared[bleep].

trying to be mining
without a mechanic.

At this point,

I just want my buddy Carl
back in one piece.

[narrator]
Next time on Gold Rush...

It's definitely
a bit of a tough year.

We're pretty short-staffed.

[narrator]
Parker Schnabel's crew

battles late-season troubles.

There's less people here
to fix stuff.

So it's kind of
all on my plate.

[narrator]
Fred Lewis gets vital help.

You know,
that's just not acceptable.

If that was happening
on our mine site,

Parker would come out
and not be happy.

Man, now he knows
our struggles.

What happened here, Tony?

[narrator]
And the long, harsh season

catches up with Tony Beets.

Check with Kevin,
I don't know what happened.

It came apart.

That's honestly
what [bleep] happened.