As everyone else has said, it sounds like you just need to choose what's more important to you. Do you want to be able to easily ride singletrack, but be slower on the road, or be faster on the road, but have to be more careful and go slower on the singletrack. From the sounds of it to me, I think you want to be able to do singletrack easily. Just make sure you consider whether you'll actually do that or not. If you won't actually end up doing it, get a Vaya or something. If you will, get the Fargo or Bombtrack. My best friend has had a Fargo for a few years. We've done a road tour together and he's done the Great Divide with it. He keeps up fine on the road with some slick touring tires, but of course not as fast as he is on a more road oriented bike. He's also a very strong rider in general, so I'm sure that helps.