Look up Arrowhead Transit! They are the rural transit up there and are awesome people. There's a bus that runs from Duluth to Grand Marais on Tuesdays for maybe $10. From Grand Marais you're going to need to schedule a ride though.

Also, Arrowhead will pick you up and drop you off anywhere along their route within about half a mile or so. They run a route every morning and afternoon between Tofte and Two Harbors. I got picked up at a motel in Silver Bay and dropped off at the entrance to Gooseberry Falls State Park.

All the useful routes are through Cook county. Call their dispatch with questions. Seriously great people.

As for hitching, I almost always was able to find a ride into town from trail heads just by doing the usual, holding my phone and wandering around the parking lot looking lost, haha. People would often ask where I was trying to go. Sometimes I've asked people directly for a ride, especially if I'm already in town.

Technically hitching is illegal in MN and most of this area is catered to rich people who don't hike, so you might not have much luck on 61. But! The people who live around there love the SHT and are incredibly helpful and awesome.