I stopped and asked for directions when I climbed Mt Tam last year. The written directions I had were a bit vague in one section, and the path not really well marked, so I asked someone for directions. Unfortunately, either I messed up, or he left out a turn, because I got all kinds of lost. Fortunately I had my phone so I was able to use the GPS to figure out where I was and where I needed to be. I figured I did several hundred feet of "extra" climbing, but since climbing was the point of the whole ride, it wasn't the end of the world.