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I had a similar experience years ago going cross country to Seattle in my manual shift 06 Mazda 5.
The car hovered at around 30 mpg for the trip and when I headed into the Cascade mountains I figured that my mileage was about to take a big hit. As it turned out, mileage was a tiny bit improved on that stretch instead. I have to assume that all the extra fuel burned climbing was compensated for by all the engine braking on the downside where the injectors were completely off.
I remember thinking at the time I would not want to have had an automatic on the downside. The manual shifts engine braking was at times not enough to check decent speeds, the engine at zero throttle and rpms hovering at 5 grand and above for miles. I can only imagine the brake wear that would have occurred in that situation by having to rely mainly on the brakes instead.
Dean
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