I am starting to lean toward a Trek DS 3 and immediately upgrade the shock to a Rockshox Paragon Gold RL. This would put the bike at about $1300.
I thought about buying the DS3 and getting a carbon rigid fork (and its still an option) but they are spendy too....at least the ones I found. Its hard to buy a carbon fork for $300-500 when I could buy a reasonable suspension fork.