The first matter of business is figuring out how much clothing is enough for the dash outside to unplug the diesel Jetta and get the engine warming up.

Julian Dafoe makes sure both heated seats are on, takes a glance to see how icy the steep driveway is — then darts back inside to fill their dog Reggie's two Kongs with peanut butter and isolate him to his area near the door with a pair of baby gates.

As he does this, his partner Chelsea Barna — the navigator for the first leg of their commute — checks Google Maps to figure out how to get into the city.

"It's [the] unpredictability of the trip. The [first] part's pretty smooth, but you get to the highway and then you don't know what's what. There might be an accident. It's just everyday you don't really know what's coming," Barna said.

"It just takes one little thing to mess up the commute."

Doug Hempstead joined Julian Dafoe and Chelsea Barna for their two-stop drive through the capital region 2:16

Mastering a difficult drive

There were many possible ways one could "win" CBC Ottawa's contest to find the Ottawa-Gatineau area's worst commute.

Sheer length was one factor — we received submissions from folks who trek to and from places like Kingston and the upper Ottawa Valley. Others waded through arduous stop-and-go drudgery involving peak-period Highway 417.

Then, there were those with great stories to tell and open to me travelling along to see the commute first hand — just not on camera.

So in the end, we chose Dafoe and Barna.

The pair have a challenging 30-kilometre trip from their rustic wood home in the quiet hills of Val-des-Monts, Que., into the city, with stops in both Gatineau and Ottawa.

But before you start freaking out about people who complain about their commute after willfully moving out of the city: I swear to you, they're not complaining. Not one little bit.

They say they love it — there's a certain payoff in living somewhere beautiful, and the travel between which gives their brains time to get in and out of at-work mode.

They've also mastered the drive, and tackle it together, which is something not many couples can successfully do.

Still, their commute isn't for everyone. Starting at home, just getting onto the winding, often unmarked Montée Paiement can be a challenge due to poor visibility.

Right now, it's also icy on the edges and in the shaded spots.

"You have to memorize the curves and the potholes for the bad weather. It gets a little bit dicey," Dafoe said.

Starts in darkness

The flight down the hillside takes up almost half their commute, which starts around 6:30 a.m. — pure darkness for a few months of the year. By the time they've hit the westbound Highway 50, they've already heard two of my traffic reports.

It's typically the 50 which determines whether their whole commute is going to be slow or not — something that happens in the time it takes them to get from home to the highway.

Barna says she has to listen to me and stay on top of the traffic apps to make sure she doesn't lead Dafoe into a trap. There are at least two other ways he can go.

The first stop is at Dafoe's work in the heart of Hull. That's where Barna switches off her phone and takes the wheel for the more unpredictable part of the trip, from there to Sandy Hill near the University of Ottawa.

Limiting one's use of Highway 50 is easy compared to finding a reliable route across the Ottawa River and through Lowertown at 7 a.m.

Not to mention that, after she parks the Jetta, she still has a 10 minute walk ahead of her.

Barna says she's probably late for work more often than Dafoe.

"I actually find it's the crawl along King Edward that's the worst," she said.

The time of the entire journey can vary wildly — 30 minutes in summertime, roughly 45 minutes on regular days, and up to two hours on snowy days.

That means on snowy days, they get to listen to me at least 11 times.

This is part of CBC Ottawa's special series Nowhere Fast, a look at how and why people commute in the capital region.

We'll be looking at the people, numbers and stories that are part of your daily trip to and from work.