GetTileLayerCount issue?

Howdy, I'm hitting the forums hard today... :)

Given that
$gameMap = $gameScene.getGlobalTileMap();

and $gameScene is an fresh scenegraph.

before I load my .t2d file, I check:
$gameMap.getTileLayerCount() = 0 // which it is.

I "load" my layer like so:

$gameScene.addToLevel(%level); // %level is the path to the .t2d level file

//this is my level0.t2d file
%levelContent = new t2dTileLayer() {
LayerFile = "tgboids/data/tilemaps/level0.lyr";
canSaveDynamicFields = "1";
size = "10240.000 10240.000";
Layer = "30";
WorldLimitMode = "BOUNCE";
WorldLimitMin = "-4999.000 -4999.000";
WorldLimitMax = "4999.000 4999.000";
CollisionActiveReceive = "1";
CollisionCircleScale = "2";
CollisionDetectionMode = "FULL";
CollisionResponseMode = "BOUNCE";
Immovable = "1";
MaxLinearVelocity = "0";
MaxAngularVelocity = "0";
mountID = "2";
type = "background";
};

Now when I do:

$gameMap.getTileLayerCount() = 2 // what? hows this possible?

It now returns 2, and when I observe the tile layer data, it shows that level0.lyr is loaded on each level.

(Note: I've also tried just using .loadlevel(%level), with the same result).

So.. its like it's loading it twice..

any one else observe this or does addTo or load Level have any known issues if a layer isn't already loaded?

Thanks for any info.

Edited for post improvement.