Hi Jason,
I came across your Day 4 post in my feed yesterday and I really enjoyed reading it. My wife and I did Lake Merced to the valley back in 2012 and it was a looong day. I remember stopping at the river by Little Yosemite to take a break and reminding her that we only had 20 minutes or so in order to get down to the valley before dark.
My photos on Flickr are here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasbrightbill/albums/72157630878006638/