I ended up buying that Gary Fisher bike, thank you to those who chimed in. Looks like I have my first xbiking project on my hands!

After basically being told I needed to go check out this bike by you guys, I ended up buying it. $150, really nice guy who went out of his way to meet me same day, I didn't try to talk him down. It turned out to be a 21" Marlin, probably the biggest I could go, on the larger side, but will work for me. Here are some pics after cleaning it up, removing some parts I won't need. Has some dings and scratches, as you would expect from a well loved bike.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with it! Given it's a bit oversized, I want to do some swept back bars. I take my DIY projects very seriously, so I will build this up very nicely. Need to look up these components and see what is worth keeping.

Thanks again to those that gave me some advice, I appreciate you.