Indian Beach at Ecola State Park.

The outdoors help center us, connect us to our surroundings and, at best, provide a respite and improvement to our daily lives.

We’ve reached that time in the summer when it seems like there are only so many weekends left to fit in another hike or trip to the beach.

But if we’re lucky, there will be more time throughout the fall to explore the bounty of outdoor activities on the North Oregon and Southwest Washington coasts.

As Coast Weekend continues to expand during our upcoming redesign, we will be adding an outdoors section to our weekly print issue.

The section will include stories as vast as the activities available to coastal denizens. It will feature a variety of how-to, service, commentary, travel, essay and photo-driven stories that help each of us learn and celebrate something new outdoors-related in our region.

This includes hiking, biking, hunting, swimming, disk golf, paddle boarding, kayaking, surfing, horseback riding, bird watching, gardening and more.

To do this, we’ll need your help. If you are an outdoors-focused writer or reporter or just someone who enjoys the outdoors and wants to share their experiences, email me at jwilliams@dailyastorian.com. You can also send me a note about a topic, place or outdoor event Coast Weekend should cover.

This will also be a section in Coast Weekend where you can find news briefs about outdoor-related events happening soon in our area.

The outdoors give us back to ourselves. I’m looking forward to learning and experiencing what makes our region so singular.