The ride or drive to trails thing eh it depends. I personally wouldn't want to ride 10 miles (20 round trip) on the road just to get to the trails and then do another 15 on the trails. Riding a mtn bike on the road sucks at least when they have rocket rons on them, mine does as well
. 5 miles I might at least some times. I ride my road bike to one of the parks with mtn trails though and sometimes if things are completely dry and I want to have some fun and hit the easy trail with it, 28mm road tires are great on dirt, rocks and roots.