Ashley, Tom, and Pablo,
I think Matt and I should do the lower Yough test. It appears that Matt is just starting to get well from a persistent upper respiratory infection, after missing the past two weekend trips and three weekday training sessions. It is probably no better than 50/50 whether he will try to kayak tomorrow. I would feel better with him having some more training and the kind of more formal evaluation that the lower Yough trip on the 20th would provide before he gets on the upper Yough. Matt's first paddling in almost a year was the the Cheat race and the only other paddling since then has been upper Yough training - of which he has missed half.
Bobby, I think, is good to go on the upper Yough - and he would not hesitate to tell anyone the same! Of course, the call is Tom's and Pablo's to make...and he will respect that call.
I look forward - always with some nerves - to tomorrow's challenge as well as the test on the lower Yough on the 20th. As I have said from the outset, if the judgment of Tom and Pablo is that I should stay off the upper Yough, then the training will have been totally worth it, greatly enjoyed, and appreciated...and I will be looking forward to the remainder of this year's as well as next year's upper Yough training! If I can sneak into a couple lower Yough trips this summer in lieu of the upper, that would be greatly appreciated!
Back to Bobby...if it can work for the same day that Bobby paddles the upper, while Matt and I paddle the lower, that is completely fine. Otherwise, Bobby truly loves paddling the lower Yough and would appreciate showing his older brother - and, needless to say, his old man - what real whitewater paddling is on the lower Yough test.
Kind Regards,
Jim
"These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace." John 16:33