By Simon Peter Groebner
Star Tribune
It’s one of the longest drives a city dweller can make and still be in Minnesota. First, four hours up the interstate and along the rugged North Shore, deep into the Arrowhead. At Grand Marais, you abruptly make a jagged, thousand-foot ascent. You hew west onto smooth, straight pavement that tunnels through dense boreal forest and past slivers of glacial lakes.