'Gold Rush: White Water' Season 3 Episode 11: 'Dakota' Fred finally hits jackpot as Dustin struggles in his spot
Episode 10 of the Discovery Channel documentary-series ‘Gold Rush: White Water’ Season 3 ended on a massive cliffhanger. After finally settling on “McKinley Falls”, a dangerous bit of terrain that had brought lots of gold for miners in the 19th century, as their new spot for gold mining, Dustin Hurt’s crew found themselves with the Herculean task of transporting their incredibly heavy equipment to the region.
While transferring the dredge down, a big piece of rock falls from a great height, hitting Dustin. The episode ends before one can surmise if Dustin his hurt -- a huge piece of rock from a height like that was sure to cause damage. If it did injure him, it could mean the end of the season for Dustin in his hunt for gold.
Episode 11 began right where the previous one ended. His concerned crew members were unable to see Dustin from the height and his father ‘Dakota’ Fred Hurt hurried to look for him. It soon appeared though that their worries were premature. Yes, Dustin was hit by the rock, right in his face. And yes, he was knocked out cold for a bit, but he seemed to have avoided any kind of serious injuries. And just like that, they were back to business. And they renamed their spot as “Rockfall Ravine” in honor of Dustin’s accident.
But problems were still not done with Dustin’s crew. The dredge that tumbled a little while it was being transported down to the creek refused to start. Without their dredge, it would mean the end of the season for the crew. After considerable efforts and some quick-thinking from Wess Richardson, they finally managed to make it work.
For most of the episode, Dustin’s crew was challenged with understanding their new tricky terrain and the need to improvise to overcome the sheer force of nature. In just setting up their machinery, they kept facing one obstacle after the other. In fact, Dustin almost drowned in the currents, after tripping and falling in the fast-flowing creek.
Back at “Thunder Falls”, ‘Dakota’ Fred’s spot, the crew containing Ryan Coroza, Kayla Shale and Paul Richardson was amped up with new hope and possibilities of a treasure, despite having had a long streak of bad fortune this season. As they moved closer to the bedrock, ‘Dakota’ Fred found little nuggets of visible gold underwater, as a sign that they may have hit the motherlode.
Upon examining their collection after a solid four hours of diving and dredging, the crew, to their delight, found enough gold to keep their spirits buoyant. In just one dive, they found almost the same amount of gold they had found thus far!
They had one thing standing in their way though. A giant boulder they named “Potato Rock” that weighed tonnes. The crew struggled to remove it, convinced that underneath it, they would find the promised gold. With a lot of man-hours of effort and a complete overhauling of their winch system, they finally managed to displace the gigantic rock.
Just when they thought their luck was on the rise, however, a night of heavy rainfall resulted in their spot almost being flooded. It also meant the intensity of the waterfall had increased, something that would push their schedule by at least one day; a high price this close to the winter and the beginning of frost.
‘Dakota’ Fred decided to push his luck and dive anyway. And his perseverance paid off. After two hours of diving and dredging, they managed to find more gold than they had the day before. At this rate, ‘Dakota’ Fred’s crew will soon catch up to Dustin’s.
‘Gold Rush: White Water’ Season 3 airs on the Discovery Channel every Friday, 10 p.m. ET.