Ford Repair: clutch?, clutch master cylinder, mountains of colorado

Question
Hey Mark I have a question about a 91 ford escort 1.9L manual trans.  I travel through the mountains of Colorado to get to work every week..  I travel one way a little over 100 miles at the begining of the week and 100 miles at the end of the week.. Just recently I get about half way and as I approach a hill I try to down shift into a lower gear and I cant... so then I have to pull over and let the car cool off or even shut it off before I am able to get the car back into gear...  Im not sure if my clutch needs to be replaced or if I may need to just bleed the master cylinder because of dirty fluid... can you please help me???  will

Answer
first is your clutch master cylinder full if so then you shouldn't have a leak-if low you could have master or slave cylinder leaking-more often than not slave cylinder on transmission-can you pump the pedal several times while it is running then get it to go in gear if so definitly hydraulic problem-does the clutch slip on hard accel you may need both clutch and slave cylinder-if you can pump it then pull boot back on slave cylinder and look for moisture of look inside under dash for fluid residue around master cylinder/clutch rod on firewall inside
if you have moisture (fluid) then replace that component-if you have to bleed it you have a problem.
if you actually need a clutch be sure and use a new one and replace slave cylinder at same time.

good luck.