I'm planning a 9 day trip mid-July starting at White Wolf to Smith Peak (Day 1), to HH dam (2) Ranchierra (3) Pleasant Valley (4) Pate Valley (5) GCT (6,7,8), Tuolomne bus back to car (Day 9). I'm middle-aged hiker, 180lbs, very good shape, with my almost 17yr old daughter who's quite strong, and tough, but doesn't train for sports. I figure if things get ugly we could cut short and go up to WW directly from the valley but this would really be a shame to miss the GCT. Am I being realistic to think we can make it all the way to Tuolomne in that time frame? We've done 1 & 2 day trips (w/pack and all) in the Adirondacks and Catskills since she was 8 or 9, and lots of day hikes here in the foothills of western NY (I did a fair amount of backpacking way back).
A relevant aside, to justify the expense and to show Tess all that i want to of Yosemite, we are then spending Day 9 evening at Curry Village, Day 10 packing up Yosemite Falls to North Dome, Day 11-17 to Tenaya Lake, Clouds Rest, Little Yosemite Valley, Half Dome, for another 8-9 days. This involves some hard hiking, seems to be harder than that Ranchierra hike from what I can tell, but we also seem to have more leeway for time and rest (by then we should know our abilities as regards the lay of the land).