Galicia & Lwow, west and around Turka

As the land to the south settles down to turkey and ham dinners, I move over the continental divide into the far southeast corner of Poland.  For a time, it's all the Kingdom of Poland, though it's modern Ukraine.  Poland collapses over the next century, until all this is seized by Catherine the Great, but for the time being the realm seems robust and threatening.

To make the front line of completed hexes line up, I'm going to do three hexes today instead of two: a section 60 miles by 20 instead of the usual 40.  Planned is the main spine of the Carpathians as it swings from trending north to west:

Turns out, I have Turka further north than it should be.  It also happens this area is the source of multiple small rivers, which makes for a pleasant, complex terrain:

We have another old cart path on the other side of the borders, similar to the one discussed yesterday (which appears in the bottom right).  The wilderness looks imposing, but it's just 6 miles wide in some places.  Still, 6 miles of wilderness can be very unpleasant, as anyone can attest whose climbed over deadfalls or up and down mountain spurs for that distance.  It makes a very imposing barrier to an army, especially as there's no forage available.

The mountains are between 3000 and 4500 ft. high, or up to about 1400 metres.  This is high enough to produce some difficult canyons and cliff faces, as Google maps attests.  Hunting through and clearing out an area like this would be no easy task. 

Going one more line of hexes north with the next post, which is as far north as we'll go for the time being.  The upper line is 49 degrees, 39 minutes north ... so just above the 49th parallel between Canada and the United States.  The climate is continental and not pleasant in the winter.  Good skiing though.