Rivnuts from Homestead, PA on 12/12/2022 2:50:54 PM:
Currently the C&O website is projecting completion of the construction work on the downriver side of the Paw Paw Tunnel to be complete at the end of the 2022/2023 winter season. If that schedule holds true you should not have to traverse the tunnel bypass trail.
There is free, long-term parking on Howard Street beneath the I68 Highway overpass near Canal Place in Cumberland.