Oh and I second (3rd??) the recommendation of a clinic. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend one given by the Trek women's demo team....and use one of their bikes. Liked the women only aspect as took out a lot of the intimidation. And the bike (a FuelEX8) was pretty sweet! Much better bike than I would probably ever rideon my own.

While I know I want a "real" MTB bike, I want to try out a few before I take the plunge. 26 vs 29, hard tail vs full suspension etc.

I did a blog post on the clinic. If you can't find from the link below (titled time to try something new or similar) I can get a direct link if you're interested.