Turns out they don't sit all curled up and rattling all day as they do in pictures. This one was lying across the trail, doing a great impersonation of a silent stick, one upon which I almost trod.
I had just passed a sign warning about mountain lions, so I was pondering 'what if' actions to take in that circumstance, so I wasn't looking for rattlers. I happened to look down right by my feet on a shady part of the trail and saw someone like this:
The one that I saw was stretched out, however, and not curled up looking like a the snake above. I leaped back (instead of forward), and now I was stuck behind a recalcitrant snake-on-the-trail. After throwing some rocks near him to try to make him move, I eventually gave up, having annoyed him, and went back down the trail to try a different trail.
Apparently, that day was a day for a Rattlesnake Jamboree at Cold Canyon because, not two minutes later, I heard a different rattler rattling his heart out near to the trail. Boy--are those things loud.
I sighed, gave up, left the trail to the snakes, and went for a safer Smittle Creek excursion instead. There I saw only wild squirrels and ospreys.
That was also the hike in which I learned that my Vasque boots had that niggley achilles heel problem, so all was not completely lost on that day. Knowing you have boot problems before you go up to a peak is a good discovery, I think.
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