Tonight's episode of "Gold Rush" titled "Bedrock Blowout" finds the miners working harder to beat the season deadlines. After leaving Quartz Creek, Todd Hoffman and crew joined Dave Turin at Indian River to workday and night to reach their 1000-ounce prediction. So far, they have 414 ounces and about three weeks left to do it.
Last week, they found 137 ounces and hope to beat all records for the rest of the season. Now they are down to the bedrock layer, the hardest on the machinery, but usually the most gold laden layer. They can only feed one scoop at a time of this dirt, and they must baby sit the trammel. Sure enough, a jam occurs and a flood happens when the bedrock blocks the feeder.
Dave has to leave the Klondike to oversee business at home; Todd is now in command to make sure things keep running properly. Before Dave leaves, Todd tells him that he wants to open cut one to find more gold. Todd tells Dave he will wait for him to return and discuss it further. Knowing Todd, he probably will not wait for Dave to return.
At Porcupine Creek, they found gold in the glory hole using a dredge and Dustin was right in his belief that there was more gold there. They are taking a chance by lowering the pump to the glory hole. It is making the pump work harder and having faith that it will keep working to pump out the water and find the base of the ancient waterfall. As Dustin breaks up the rocky surface, Fred digs it out. Then the track of the excavator comes off, and the pump stops working. With the pump not working, the hole is filling up, which could flood the excavator and kill the operation. Fred managed to nudge the track back on with the bucket and rescues the excavator from harm.
At Big Nugget, Parker is working on the latest load of the Discovery Claim. Hauling it down to the plant, it is a treacherous drive down the hill with a 300-foot drop over the mountain. Parker insists on driving the dirt on the road by himself. He will not let anyone else take the chance. The back of the truck slid on wet ground, and Parker turned the truck over. He is fine, but the slick road had the final say. The truck does not seem harmed, but putting it back up could be more dangerous. Parker brought the excavator to turn the truck back upright, and although he was sliding around all day on his trips back and forth, he admits that gold can make you do stupid things.
Parker called the crew together and announced that they had to close Discovery down. It is much too dangerous on that hill. It is September in Alaska, and the ground is too soft.
At Indian River, while Dave is away, Todd meets with his crew to ask them what they think about extending the first cut. They agree and start digging; but first they must move tons of mud. Mitch and Andy forge through the mud working all night to clear the mud. While the guys are working, Todd runs the dirt through by himself. The same dirt blocked up the operation before Dave left; and Todd finds out that it is not a one-man-operation. The chunky bedrock is too much for Big Red as they have a blowout, with the jam sending water and feed spewing over the sides. When Andy wants to slow down the operation, Todd does not want to do that. Todd did not put enough paydirt in the box, and with the water running full blast; the gold could wash away.
At Porcupine Creek, after five days of running, they start the clean up. Fred weighs it and a jubilant crew hears 22.4 ounces for a total of 139 ounces. Well on the way to their goal of 160 ounces.
At Indian River, after working all night, Mitch and Andy are still raring to go. They do not want 990; they want 1,000 ounces. Now Todd as to find out if he accidentally washed the gold from the sluices. Dave returned from Oregon and immediately sees that the cut has been touched. Todd tells Dave he possibly blew gold out of the sluice. As the cleanup progresses, they found about two ounces in the lower mats, meaning that they lost plenty of gold by Todd's irrational behavior. As the crew sits by the fire, they wait for Jack to return with the news. They found another 107 ounces a total of 521 ounces. One more clean up and they are on the way to a million-dollar season. As Jack leads the group in prayer, he asks for the Heavenly Father to bless them with gold as the season winds down on "Gold Rush."
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