Root motion and transitions

I like using root motion since it gives better results - feet sticking on ground, the movement matches animation perfectly, etc....

But... the walking animation I have ends up causing some rotation if it ends early.....
If it plays to the end, it looks great - the starting facing direction matches ending facing direction....

But during a walk, if the clip is excited early due to player control, the player may end up facing slightly toward the right (due to the ambling nature of the walk). If the player starts and stops walking many times in rapid succession, it causes an obvious and unwanted rotation.

What is the best way to handle this?

I was thinking of storing the players facing direction when starting the walk, and if it exits early then just restoring it?

Thanks for any feedback/advice

[SOLVED]
Using a blend tree between the idle and the walk seems to have minimized the issue