Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
Cumberland YMCA, after eight years my memory is poor but I think that site was quiet. Nobody else was camped there at that time. Checking the date of teh photo (May 11,2013), I stayed there Fri night and left Sat morning. It is across the street from the Y. There is a roofed structure with picnic tables, I do not know how often that is used, it was raining hard when we were there so we packed up under the structure in the morning.
With Covid, I have no clue what sort of eating establishments there are that are open, or if the Y is open. You might want to call the Y and ask as many questions as you can think of.
The Y has a lot of information about camping on its website. IIRC, it was open back in September. Technically, you are not supposed to set up camp before a certain time in case the area is being used for an event. But I think they are flexible.
MD was pretty lax about restrictions even back then. I ate out indoors in Cumberland and stayed in the Fairfield Inn right near the beginning of the C&O so I could do laundry. Note that many of the independent restaurants are closed on Mondays. Walked a good ways to a Mexican place.
The official C&O website usually has information about water availability at the various campgrounds.