‘Gold Rush: White Water’ Season 3 Episode 4 sees team Dustin’s improvisation and determination earn them an ounce, Fred’s woes continue
In the treacherous terrains of the Chilkat Mountains in Alaska, two crews have been weathering rains, rapids and wild animals to hunt for gold. In ‘Gold Rush: White Water’ Season 3’s fourth episode, a lot went down.
Dustin Hurt was itching to dive. Leading his crew of Wess Richardson, Carlos Minor and James Hamm, Dustin had so far, for five weeks, only supervised everyone. But of course, he wanted to take a dip at his claim, “Rainbow’s End”, as well, and discover for himself if the bed under the waterfall was the goldmine they were hoping for.
So, they decided to double their efforts. Both Dustin and Carlos took the dive, doubling their dredge capacity and halving their efforts to reach the bottom of the waterfall. Dustin was almost caught in an accident -- his arm almost got stuck in the dredge’s vacuum pipe. But he shrugged it off and continued his hunt.
What did manage to stump the crew, however, was a large boulder they just couldn’t lift, even with their winch system. A quarter of a mile downstream at 75-year-old mining legend ‘Dakota’ Fred Hurt’s “Two Fish” mine site, the second crew faced the same fate.
Fred found his path underwater blocked by a massive boulder. The old man decided to improvise: he drilled a hole into the rock, attached a bolt and a chain and tried to get the half-tonne rock lifted out by their winch system. Of course, the cable snapped. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
Back at “Rainbow’s End”, Wess had devised a way to lift the rock. He made a choker -- they named it “Superclaw” -- to trap the rock so it would slip past the cables. And it succeeded. Like episode 3, Dustin’s crew continued to enjoy better luck than ‘Dakota’ Fred’s.
Even after repairing the broken cable, Fred’s problems weren’t over. When Paul Richardson dived into the water, the dredge engine suddenly gave out, causing air supply to stop immediately, leading the crew to begrudgingly terminate the dive.
It was a major setback. And it led to some drama. Fred wanted to use bolts from their old engine to repair the new one. But the engine in concern was in possession of Dustin and his crew told Fred he could probably have it at the end of the day. Needless to say, Fred wasn’t happy.
Luckily, Dustin sorted the issue out before it could escalate. Dustin and his crew, all the while, continued to dredge as if their lives depended on it. And it paid off. They found a lot of “chunky” gold.
After cleaning up their finds, the comparison between the two crews really set them apart. While ‘Dakota’ Fred only had a few chunky specks to his credit, Dustin and his crew almost had an ounce of gold, something that seemed to dishearten Fred a lot.
‘Gold Rush: White Water’ Season 3 airs on the Discovery Channel every Sunday at 10 p.m. ET.