Very cool level! This was my favorite, maybe because I solved it first. Interesting series but the second and third felt much easier after tackling one.
EDIT: Hmm, not sure where this 68 is...
Wooow, great puzzle! I first had 120+ paths and couldn't see any better. Then I finally realized, there are more possibilities. Not easy for me to see, at all.
Getting the right idea took me a while - my first attempts were over 100 steps! - but once I got there the optimization was not nearly as bad as I expected. Cool level concept.