Exclusive: ‘Gold Rush: Parker’s Trail’ Season 2 Takes Crew on Dangerous Search for El Dorado

The Gold Rush crew is on the hunt for the mythic site of El Dorado.

In the new season of Gold Rush: Parker’s Trail, a spin-off of Discovery‘s No. 1 hit show, crew leader Parker Schnabel is heading off to the Amazon rainforest in Guyana in search of the legendary city of gold.

Accompanying him on his adventure will be new mine boss Rick Ness to help him; survival expert and wilderness guide Karla Ann to help keep them all alive; and longtime friend and adventure cameraman Sam Brown, who is responsible for filming their expedition.

Schnabel opened up about the upcoming season to PopCulture.com exclusively prior to the show’s first trailer release, which shows the crew possibly losing Ness to an Amazonian river while trying to cross the dangerous waterway with nothing but inflated dry bags.

While he wouldn’t disclose if they were able to make it to the legendary site of the golden city — “From zero to finding El Dorado, we’re somewhere in the middle” — he did open up about what it was like to spend 60 days in the jungle environment.

“It was by far the most challenging two months of my life,” he told PopCulture.com. “It’s so far out of any realm of comfort for an Alaskan boy, that it was pretty weird.”

Part of what took Schnabel so out of his element was the number of insects and snakes constantly surrounding them.

“One time, we were on a boat, and there was a pretty fast current and like a six-foot snake just swimming up the current,” he said. “Spiders the size of dinner plates and all that jazz.”

Mining in the Yukon certainly isn’t a walk in the park, Gold Rush fans know, but mining in Guyana was even harder.

“You were never comfortable, and that wears you down,” Schnabel told PopCulture.com. “and then the jungle viruses, i guess we could leave it at that … they hit us quite hard, me in particular quite hard, and it’s miserable.”

As for what kind of gold haul they were able to bring in? That remains to be seen. But from what Schnabel says, every ounce will be a struggle.

“It’s just hard to get a lot done,” he told PopCulture.com. “And then when you finally do get some place where you want to work, it’s like 120 degrees, 100 percent humidity. You’re active for 10 minutes in that heat, and you’re cooked.”

Gold Rush: Parker’s Trail premieres on March 31 at 9 p.m. ET on Discovery.