A couple of years ago, I bought some tinted safety glasses to wear when bicycling in the summer. I attached one of those little cycling rearview mirrors to the left temple, so I wouldn't get blind-sided by an overtaking motor vehicle. Because most of my carting is done on public roads and shared with cars, buses and trucks, I started using these glasses for mushing as well, and for the same reason. When I had the dogs out today, I spotted a minivan when it was still a good quarter-mile behind us. The glasses also are also good for protection against bright sunlight reflected off snow.

I also have a set of earplugs I use when harnessing up. They are the rubber-padded plugs on a padded, spring steel yoke. I keep my earplugs in the truck and wear them around my neck from the time I back the truck out of the garage until the dogs are safely kenneled at the end of the day. When hitching up, the dogs kick up quite a din. The earplugs ease the misery of having a dog bellowing in my ear while I'm trying to harness him up or hook him into the gang line. My hearing is pretty bad already for various reasons and, as much as I enjoy mushing my dogs, I'd just as soon not have my hearing damaged any further by all that racket.

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