Any suggestions for 4-6 day trip within a day’s drive of Twin Cities?

Wesley,
There are some nice shorter trips near Ely. Maybe you could jump from one to the other. Neither require a shuttle.
One would be around Angleworm Lake.I've done this as a day trip but if you take your time and camp maybe at Whiskeyjack Lake it could be a two day trip.
The second would be around Snowbank Lake and through the Disappointment Lake Area. You might be able to squeeze a three night trip back there.
Any current Fisher map will show you the trails which were in decent shape the last time I went out ther.
Also there's the Kek Trail and Superior Hiking trail.
TomL

You could do the southern half of the Maah Daah Hey in western North Dakota. Shuttles are available for hire in Medora. The timing could be problematic, as you do not want to be out there when the clay soil is wet.

Me and a friend were looking for a similar trip a couple of Novembers ago. Living in Rochester, we chose the Ozarks of Arkansas. We could not have been more pleasantly surprised by how wonderfully scenic this part of the country is. The hiking opportunities are endless there. From Rochester, it took us 10 hours to set up camp on White Bear Mountain (I think that's the name of the camp aree.) Honestly, the south has never been a draw for either my friend or I, but we LOVED this trip. Highly recommended.

You could do the southern part of the Ozark Trail in Missouri. Shuttles are difficult to come by but some of the canoe rental places offer them. The Eleven Point, Current River, and Taum Sauk sections are the most scenic.

Adam