"Six greenhorns are risking it all." "You're about to lose your house." "Don't lose faith." "To strike gold in Alaska." "We got gold!" "And save their families." "Huh." "Harder." "Harder." "Harder." "Get the frig back." "Now." "As they try to set up their operation." "Jack Hoffman loses control." "Hold on." "And they have to learn to live with each other." "Shut up and get out of my cabin." "Now." "As Todd Hoffman and his team come face to face" "With the reality of life in the wilderness." "Whoo." "Todd Hoffman and his father Jack have sold everything they can." "And are staking it all on a gold claim in Alaska." "Who's that man." "Yahoo." "It better be there." "this is it." "It's gonna be tough." "There's no plan B." "We can't even afford plan A." "We thank you for this moment in Jesus's name." "we have to win on this one." "One week ago they left their home in Sandy Oregon for Alaska with four of their closest buddies." "All have been hit hard by the economic downturn." "and I'm done with that." "I got to make something happen." "but it's very crucial that we find gold." "everything's great." "we're in trouble." "Alaska's mining season is five months." "But the Hoffmans can only afford three." "They need to find gold before their money runs out." "fully screwed." "So." "I fully intend to dig gold out of that hole." "Their claim is 160 wild and rugged acres under the Chilkat Mountains in southeast Alaska." "where they'll have to learn how to survive alongside the locals." "There's an estimated 15 million dollars of untouched gold on their claim." "They plan to be mining here until the ground freezes." "they have to set up a place to live." "Jack can't wait to get moving." "Got to strip this down." "Get it smooth." "So we can build our camp up here." "is to clear and level the ground." "The good news is there's an old D-6 dozer on the site." "Abandoned here by the miner they leased the claim from." "The bad news is:" "It hasn't been started for three years." "We're gonna hot wire it cause we don't have a key." "It's not like the owner is going to complain." "but we'll use it trying to get on his mine to mine." "I don't have any problem with that." "I don't think he will either." "the nearest State Trooper is hours away." "Even if he can make it through the snow drifts." "That's good." "Enough." "That's close enough." "Okay." "We're gonna try it." "(SNAP)" "Whoa." "Oh." "We must have them wrong." "Uh oh." "Wait." "No." "We got it wrong here." "Okay." "We're gonna try here." "Aw." "We got to charge it again." "It looks like winter temperatures of 20 below might have done more than just kill the dozer's battery." "the final hope lies in the bottom of Jack's toolbox." "Squirt a little bit right now." "Starting spray." "Highly flammable ether." "It's used to help cold engines ignite." "Give it a try." "Pray." "Come on." "Pray." "(Click." "Clunk. chuga chuga chuga)" "(Engine fires up.)" "Wahoo." "Woo." "Woo." "Hooray." "No guts." "No glory." "Yeeah." "Woo." "Jack makes quick work of clearing the snow where the guys want to set up camp." "That's two little doggers." "But the job has just begun." "we got to get this muck out of here." "Yeah." "We got a lot of dirt to move." "A lot of dirt" "So." "I don't know." "Kinda working out the plan as they go." "The team wants to bring in their RV's." "But the D6 dozer won't be enough to shift all the mud." "and the even bigger 400." "We got a lot of work left to do before we actually start mining." "Yeah." "Suck her up." "A little more." "You're good." "It's spring in Alaska." "Jack and the team finish the solid base for their camp." "The center piece is their forty foot semi trailer holding everything the miners need to live here." "This is big for us to get this trailer in here." "It's our kitchen." "And it holds all the supplies that we been living without for a few days." "It's even holding the wood to build a cabin." "I'm super excited cause all our stuff's here." "We can actually set up camp." "And we're ready to rock." "Now." "The miners can also bring in their homes for the summer." "Four RVs." "Doesn't look like much but that's our home." "For a while." "This is really a key point for me." "Because we're here." "They've made a start on the camp." "the mining season's already started." "The Hoffmans have called the crew together." "They think they know how to strike it rich here." "Jack mined in Alaska." "Todd has been researching the best way to find gold." "Gold naturally occurs in the earth's crust." "geological processes have forced the gold into quartz veins." "erosion has washed the gold down the water courses at Porcupine Creek." "the gold has settled along the old riverbeds." "Jack and Todd will be targeting these deposits." "On this claim there's ancient river channels." "there's an actual pay streak of gold." "coming down the mountain." "so" "That's where we got to get down to." "And that's what we gotta find." "There are three ancient river channels at Porcupine." "Each potentially with a pay streak." "One runs right behind the camp." "And that's where Todd wants to look for the fine gold deposits." "Although there is a bigger prize." "Along these ancient channels are waterfalls." "big nuggets have collected over thousands of years." "These concentrated deposits of gold are known as "Glory holes"." "So the water just dropped it in there." "Left it in this basin down here." "That is what you call a Glory Hole." "All you have to do is get down and dig it." "the action of erosion has covered them up." "could now be up to 100 feet underground." "could be just feet from the surface." "and steady." "because that's where our moneys gonna be." "Right there." "The Hoffmans aren't the first people to have prospected for gold at Porcupine Creek." "this was a thriving gold town. 200 prospectors lived here." "It was one of the most successful gold fields in Alaska." "and falling gold prices brought an end to Porcupine's gold rush." "is John Schnabel." "Right across the street from each other." "Our claims butt right up together." "this guy's got so much gold." "He doesn't even know what to do with it." "With such a successful miner just across the creek." "Jack and Todd want to see what they can learn." "I'm hoping he'll help a guy who doesn't know how to mine." "How about 6 guys that don't know how to mine." "Listen." "Don't say anything stupid over there." "well." "Probably want to do that for you." "Todd." "I'm John." "Good to meet you John." "This is the top stuff that's in that dirt you're looking at over there." "Seems even John Schnabel's pockets are stuffed with jars of gold." "You've got a few pieces that's a little bit bigger than flakes." "That's what you get down on the bottom." "Sometimes you get into an area that gold is bigger than that." "John." "Yeah." "Yeah." "I really like the sound of that." "I'm not interested." "Haw Haw." "Nice looking gold." "It is nice." "you get the heavy gold." "it was a hundred feet." "It took us two years to get to bedrock." "Then it's a couple of hundred thousand dollars." "You just have to have enough money to stick with it long enough to get there." "Cause they said "No guts." "No glory"." "Haw haw." "No guts." "No glory." "That's right." "is a bombshell." "in that one spot." "Two hundred thousand dollars worth of digging." "geez ." "our time's running out." "And so we have to go for it." "Todd and Jack have only got enough money to mine for three months." "and can't wait two years to hit pay dirt." "before this season is out." "Up ahead" "Don't walk in there." "The search for gold at the claim begins." "How do you really know that there's gold here." "The all important mining equipment arrives." "Oh." "No." "And the local inhabitants get up close and personal." "A bear's not gonna get in between my son and I." "(Gun loading) That I guarantee you." "and have been hit by a bombshell from neighbour and fellow miner John Schnabel." "He told us he dug for two years." "our time's running out." "if they don't find gold." "which used to run behind the camp." "Todd thinks fine gold deposits will have settled into the old river bed." "Don't go down in there." "Don't walk in there." "Kind of a dangerous place." "But I'll spend a few seconds." "they're going to hand for gold to see if there's any sign of the pay streak." "A little bit of color but not much." "Not what we were expecting." "but not enough there.." "turned my crank." "I know we got to just keep trying." "I know the gold's here." "Hey." "Get out of there." "Every second is dangerous." "Get outta there." "Grab it." "Quick." "It's thirty years since Jack mined in Alaska." "It seems like he won't let anything get in the way of finding gold now." "He's a lone wolf." "He's a maverick." "He just wants to dig gold and stuff." "He's ready to die." "ah." "That's scary." "you don't win." "Jack rushes off to dig another hole." "Jack." "Did I hit it?" "Aw." "Crap." "Check your surroundings before you get in any equipment." "Too bad for him." "It's his own truck." "Todd has made Jim Thurber the site safety officer." "with a crew of rookie miners." "but this is deadly." "Yeah." "Well." "It's just one of those things." "You get old and you do dumb things." "That's someone smashed." "Equipment takes them out like that." "So." "There's nothing funny about that." "Survival in Alaska isn't just about avoiding Jack in an excavator." "The crew needs to set up everything they brought with them." "and sleep here." "electricity." "toilets." "We're pretty much off the grid." "and are using seven generators to power the entire site through 3000 feet of cable." "But they need to tap into Alaska's natural resources as well." "We don't have a well or anything." "We gotta grab water out of this little spring." "Getting up." "Walking down the hall to a shower isn't happening here." "So uh" "It's educational." "The two 500 gallon water tanks will provide enough water for one week." "It's all hands on deck to turn this claim into a home." "Pastor Mike Halstead is turned his attention to putting a roof over their heads." "He brought more than a ton of timber from Oregon to build a house for the community." "We'll have a big porch and there'll be a big living room that'll just be a community room where everybody can come in and have lunch or hang out when it's raining." "a wood back and wood walls and then a canvas top." "And so the bear's gonna have to be over eight feet tall to reach in." "for good reason." "and we're not on top anymore." "Porcupine Creek's bears are waking from hibernation." "there's bears." "Black bears." "Oh." "Look at that." "There he is right there." "To the left of that field there." "They're coming out in the middle of the day." "they are hungry." "I think we're okay right here." "That's a.." "there's bears everywhere around here." "and Hunter age 11." "who's 10." "their moms are concerned." "about the boys being caught off guard by a bear." "My son could be walking over and right there is a 500 pound grizzly bear." "Jimmy Dorsey is also worried." "He's the only member of the crew who hasn't got an RV to sleep in." "All he has is his tent." "this hillside." "This is where they got to stalk us from." "This is it there." "Dorsey hears a sound." "there's something right here in these bushes." "(Growl) Oh!" "Look at that." "You guys..." "Dorsey has seen a bear." "Where?" "It was running too." "It's right there by those trees.." "six hundred pounds." "Dude" "I haven't seen one fox." "I haven't seen one deer." "I haven't seen one elk." "nothing." "All I've seen is three bears so far." "At the mine site." "Yeah." "It's like nothing lives here except bears." "there's ten out there you haven't seen yet." "So who knows how many are wandering around." "An attack from a 600 pound bear could be fatal." "The guys have to check the camp to see where it's gone." "This is a 338 ultra mag." "Look at this." "Todd's got an AR-15 assault rifle." "My god." "I didn't know you had that." "hoping the sound of the engine will scare the bear off." "Right there." "See the eyes." "See that there." "Tracks there dad." "This is it?" "(loads rifle)" "Yeah." "by the willow trees." "I think this is a grizzly bear." "Right there." "Right there." "There's the mother." "This is a bad hunt Jimmy." "He's got really good eyes at night." "And you can't see him through the binoculars." "and he won't have gone far." "Sleeping in a tent doesn't seem like such a good idea." "maybe in the truck tonight." "Or the trailer." "I don't know." "In the semi?" "give me a holler." "Ooh." "Todd." "Is that you?" "Todd." "Alaska is home to most of America's bears." "and a hundred thousand black bears live here." "bears outnumber miners 3 to 1." "a vital piece of mining equipment is arriving." "Step by step." "We're getting closer to the gold." "It's the shaker." "Shakers are the first step in recovering gold." "They shake the gold bearing grabbers from big boulders." "the team spent 3 months creating their very own machine before shipping it to Porcupine Creek." "Now Jack's in charge of the final step." "Getting it safely off the trailer." "The shaker weighs in at 22 thousand lbs." "Jimmy." "The miners can only lift it with the 400 excavator." "so the truck can drive away." "Now." "Is the other side in?" "Just hold on until he's back." "But Jack's getting impatient." "Heading your way." "Whoa." "Whoa. whoa." "Hey." "You know you're all jihad." "I would just square it up." "That cable's right." "And you put the generator right in the way." "Does that look right to you?" "I don't know why you people leave stuff in the way." "Listen." "We didn't plan on doing this." "Well." "Move it out of the way." "But Jack can't wait for Todd to move the generator." "hell no." "You got it all screwed up." "Now what?" "Pastor Mike Halstead jumps up to reconnect the cable to the jaws of the 400." "Mike." "That's straight teetering." "Wedge out Mike." "Out Mike." "Wait." "the jaws are at breaking point." "(cables are heard straining)" "Hold on." "shoot." "Listen." "Can you come down a little bit." "See if it'll set." "Down." "What the heck happened?" "You got hooked under there." "the springs are an easy fix." "it's going to be a major setback." "What?" "Let me get the 270." "Todd wants to take half the weight with the smaller excavator." "But Jack's in no mood to be helped." "Wait." "Tell him to start it up." "Get it out." "Rev out." "Lift." "Go go go go go." "(strain can be heard increasing)" "(Click)" "There you go." "Good lord." "Know what." "It's off the trailer and it's fixed." "But that could have been really bad." "which I think is right." "Just gotta get done." "which will separate gold from dirt." "Todd and Dorsey have to go on a thousand mile journey to Anchorage to buy the last and most important piece." "A duplex jig." "It's owned by the man the Hoffman's have leased their claim from." "Earl Foster." "we're sunk." "we're not gonna get about half the gold." "But Todd's short of cash." "And duplex jigs don't come cheap." "I don't have the money I need." "Thirty thousand dollars." "Todd's only hope is if Earl is prepared to make a deal." "at this point." "Jack's supposed to be digging small holes to locate the fine gold that the duplex jig will process." "But he's getting gold fever." "I'm so anxious to go mining I can't hardly stand it." "and is digging all over the claim to find a glory hole." "you know." "It's not a question of wanting it." "We need it." "Todd just got to trust me." "I'm the guy that really knows how to mine." "you have to dig much deeper holes to locate an ancient waterfall." "you know." "the odds are stacked against him." "right here." "the claim owner." "huh." "Wow." "because they're the final stage in a wash plant." "washing the heavier fine gold from the dirt." "Sixty percent of the Hoffman's gold may just come this way." "Earl." "This is a rubber diaphragm." "It pulsates the water?" "It allows the heavier particles to sift down in between those slats and pile them down here." "You get black sand and gold." "and maybe half at the end of the season?" "Jack Hoffman's new plan for finding gold comes into question." "How do you know that there's gold here?" "And Porcupine's bears pay the camp a visit." "the man he has leased his gold claim from." "huh." "Earl has a vital piece of mining equipment for sale." "The duplex jig will help Todd and his team get up to sixty percent of their gold from the dirt." "Okay. man." "I'm running out of money." "Would you take half down and then maybe half at the end of the season." "No problem." "Whatever come good for you is okay with me." "Hey man." "I appreciate it." "Whoa." "Okay. hang on." "That's another 15 thousand dollars Todd Hoffman has spent on the gold mining dream." "Thanks pal." "the need to strike gold just got greater." "honk.)" "they are back at the claim with the all important jig." "Here." "Yeah man." "Here it is." "Duplex jig." "This is good to see right here." "all over the claim." "Just digging holes here and there." "That's not gonna help us any." "Hey." "This is the prize." "Todd wants to know why his dad has thrown out his idea to find the pay streak." "I thought we agreed we were gonna work that." "well.." "Try and find the pay streak over towards the creek." "I know." "I know." "I think we ought to get a kind of a slow and steady plan." "That don't find a" "How can we work that? The glory hole has the most gold in it for right now." "we gotta get the money." "Alright." "go your route but" "I don't know." "I just don't know if that's the best route to go." "Jack's got everyone panning the holes he's dug searching for a glory hole." "You get any?" "Not much" "Eh?" "Not much." "Just a few pieces." "and it's taking it's toll on the team." "gold isn't yellow. all the time." "I'm color blind." "Hey Jack." "How do you know that there's gold here?" "How do I know." "Yeah." "Well." "I know there's gold." "but I mean" "It's kinda" "How do we really know if there's gold here?" "until you can see it." "I don't know really how to feel." "Maybe I'm just a little bit naive or something." "I don't know." "The search for the glory hole might not be paying off." "But at least they're making progress on the camp." "Okay now." "Hold it right there." "Come on man." "Hurry up." "Eh?" "Ahh." "Ooyah." "Good." "Holy mother." "Mike Halstead has worked tirelessly and almost finished the first house on the claim." "He's brought everything out here to Alaska." "and then the sink right here." "for Todd and his family." "And this your little love nest here." "Mike as a Pastor and part of our team is good." "He's a monster." "A manimal." "There we go." "a point not lost on Realtor Jimmy Dorsey." "Who's worried his tent isn't bear proof." "He's been inspired to build his own cabin from the logs on site." "Ella and Hannah." "I don't want to be in the middle of nowhere..being attacked by a wild animal." "That's terrifying." "The problem is Dorsey has no experience in building houses." "I put "Look Joy." "A solid door"." "So." "I think that she's going to be happy with this." "And the kids are gonna love it." "It's still a tent technically because it has a canvas top." "That's about all." "The tent characteristics of it." "I think it's bear proof." "And it will need to be." "The bears are getting bolder by the minute." "I got a griz." "Right here." "Right here." "He's right in our deal." "Ho." "Hey." "Ho." "Hello." "Crack." "Crackle." "has just seen a grizzly bear." "He's right in our deal." "It's the first bear that's come into camp in broad daylight." "And it's just yards from where they're eating breakfast." "Their safety is now under threat." "Where'd he go?" "Did he go up?" "What's he doing in here?" "There he is." "Right there." "Coming right in here." "Here." "I'm gonna scare him." "Just a second." "Oh." "What are you do..." "Bang" "Man." "That gun is messed up." "This is exactly what I thought would happen." "And they would get really used to us." "He'll be back." "Graham crackers dude." "Hey hey." "His favorite." "Food is one of the main reasons bears and humans come face to face." "or at least 12 feet in the air a bear will come back later." "man." "You left your crackers" "Hey Cubby." "What?" "You left your crackers out." "There was a grizzly bear." "At the fire." "Check your graham crackers." "He was 15 feet from us having coffee this morning." "You gotta pick that stuff up." "You shut up and get out of my cabin." "Now." "Get out of the cabin." "Before I throw you out." "we all have responsibilities." "he wants to protect his son." "running from us." "But it's another thing to have him sneak in when you're having your morning coffee." "50 feet from you." "If our wives and kids are gonna spend the summer here with us we gotta make sure camp is safe." "That bear's not gonna get in between my son and I." "(Click click) That I guarantee ya." "I would say what happened this morning was menacing." "Hey." "Thurber and I are gonna go make sure that bear doesn't come back." "Okay." "You guys stay in here and keep the door locked." "See you in a bit." "See ya later." "OK." "Now I can leave." "Here's scat." "Right here." "Pretty fresh." "Yeah." "And that's a trail." "Right down to our food supply right there." "I'm sleeping right down the hill in that trailer." "And they're nestled right up here in this hill." "There's some scat right here." "Geez." "This is his house." "You gotta (bleep) it up where he wants to move." "Take that ya (bleep)." "(Bleep) test off me." "Aah." "That oughta do it." "Take care of one of them anyway." "Greg has decided to call his wife Sandy." "Hello" "Hi." "Brandon spotted a grizzly bear in camp today." "I would like to talk with him." "Hey mom." "Hi Brandon." "Tell me the story about this bear that you saw around camp." "It looked up at me and then it got up and walked away." "Whew." "Did it scare you at all." "I was a little freaked out at first." "You were freaked out but you weren't scared." "And dad and them were having coffee." "I just walked over to dad and said "Hey Dad." "There's a bear"." "As a mom my first job is to protect." "to not be there." "To not be there to be able to do that for him as his mom." "It's really hard." "There's nothing that I could have done in that instance." "Means a lot to have him up here with you." "Oh." "Damn little thing is all I have." "To have my son." "Todd and the guys have been trying to secure a safety perimeter." "just feet from Mike Halstead." "You guys stay back here till we give you a buzz." "I know there was a big black bear." "He was hanging around here the other day." "There's a bear about 200 yards up here." "Mike's the only member of the team with a bear tag." "The only one licensed to shoot." "We're not gonna wait around." "It's also getting dark and I don't want to have to do this in half an hour when it's darker." "It's fresh." "And it's warm." "I see him right over here." "Mike." "Get the gator." "(piercing whistle)" "Mike." "Todd Hoffman and Mike Halstead are tracking the bear." "the safety of the team is under threat like never before." "(a rifle shot is fired)" "A little shaky." "A hundred yards." "Hey Mike." "Come up on him real slow." "Mike." "Look at that guy." "You can see the exit wound was just right out of the heart." "They're getting in close now." "A bear like this." "A 300 pounder." "Could do a lot of damage to anybody." "These kids are all running around." "We have a lot of families coming up." "they're all a threat." "you better eat the whole thing." "Right boys." "You don't go shooting that sparrow unless you plan on cooking it up." "has renewed his faith that they can survive in the wilderness." "Starting to believe it now." "you know." "First step the bear." "Next step gold." "the mood in camp is good." "Welcome to my hacienda." "Jimmy Dorsey has finished building a bear proof house for his family." "It's starting to feel like home." "I'm pretty proud of it." "And Todd is all fired up." "He wants to bring a strategy to his dad's chaotic approach to finding a glory hole." "I can't really change the old boy's mind." "We just got to put some kind of plan in place." "the claim owner." "Hey Earl." "It's Todd." "I got a question for you though." "that would be Earl." "the limestone bedrock is slanted and you can follow that down and you'll find pockets and you'll have gold in it." "You think it's somewhere in there." "I think so." "Awesome." "Somewhere right in here is a waterfall." "down to 40 feet." "I think I'm standing on the waterfall." "Should just be have an absolute pile of gold down at the bottom." "their neighbor John Schnabel isn't quite so sure." "should never believe everything somebody tells you." "sold a claim to two boys from Dakota." "and they didn't get anything out of it." "And they went down down down down down." "And they went flat broke." "They should not listen to Earl Foster." "No." "but the Hoffmans don't have a better plan." "Here's the deal." "I want you to dig somewhere out here." "until it drops off." "Yeah." "Too shoo." "Take some of this." "That's the farthest I've been down." "There's gold in this rock." "What?" "I see gold in this rock right here." "Are you sure?" "Yeah." "I'm sure." "You see it?" "That's gold." "Right there in the mud." "I think it's panning this." "It looks like Earl might have led them to the right spot after all." "things are finally moving in the right direction." "That flag means freedom." "That's the reason why this country was formed." "Little business guys are failing all across this country." "People are losing their homes." "So." "We got to turn this boat around." "I'm hoping that gold mining is the key to that." "Maybe re-spark the American dream again." "Yeah." "Old Porcupine." "Yeah." "The team's made the camp secure." "Found a promising spot to start mining." "And is getting a taste for the Alaskan wildlife." "Bear burritos." "No." "They're bearritos." "Bearritos." "Cheers." "This is what happens when you (bleep) piss us off." "We eat you." "Yeah." "Ha ha ha." "Now for the next phase guys." "Let's go get some gold." "Alright." "Suits me." "Yeeah." "294)}Subs by JackT"