Jim, it sounds like you are talking yourself into running lower pressure than you are at present
I know that to a veteran road rider like yourself, 30 or 35 psi must sound like a near-flat tire, but it actually works better. Even with tubes (sorry Josh).
When I started lowering the pressures on all our bikes, everyone noticed an improvement in grip on the single track. Rolling resistance on the hard gravel rail trail is much worse, so I pump 'em all back up to 50psi for those rides. But for rides in the woods, the girls (being slightly lighter than me) are all down to 30 psi, and I run 35 psi on my 29er. Luckily there are few sharp rocks here to shred sidewalls (mostly glacial moriane sand and gravel deposits here -- nice round rocks) and we don't do big hits to cause pinch flats, so we can get away with that with tubed tires. At 45 to 50 psi on single track, we were bouncing and slipping all over the place, esp. the three of us riding hardtails. Not fun.
FWIW, I have not had a pinch flat in about 10 years, since I used Panaracer Smoke which had really thin sidewalls.
So.....why not try it for a ride? Nothing to lose, eh? If you don't like it, take out your pump and puff 'em back up again. (Er....you did buy a mini-pump to carry along....didn't you?)
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