mack_turtle so you're telling me I should get a trail bike, but you use a gravel bike with drop bars ? I mean, there's nothing wrong with that, I know it is relatively common to do so.
What about using an off road touring bike? What are your opinion on using drop bars for single track?
My current plan for singletrack endeavors will be using my GT Zaskar mountain bike laying around. Only problem is that the front fork uses brakes only for a 700c rim. Im tired of sourcing a new fork for this bike, so I'm thinking of just using a wider 700c rear tire and using it like this. But obviously with the rigid fork I won't be able to do anything too crazy. But the fork is already about 15mm too long for bike, and then the 700c will jack up the front end a bit more and now the head tube angle is just not right. It honestly might be better to just try using my road bike with a lower stem on singletrack over that.. im not going to do that, mainly because the brakes aren't strong enough.