MEDFORD, Ore. -- A 21-year-old man died this weekend after falling more than 50-feet during a hike at Table Rocks.

Steven Casey Bouknight's mother Susan George-Bouknight got a call Saturday evening from other hikers atop Upper Table Rock. Her son had been in an accident, they said.

"There was nothing they could have done," the 55-year-old Medford resident said. "He was so badly broken."

Suffering head injuries and numerous fractures, Steven Bouknight was dead when personnel with Jackson County Fire District No. 3 reached him, said Capt. Robert Walters. A helicopter hoisted Bouknight's body from a pile of crumbled rock at the base of a cliff.

This is the second time this year the district was called to rescue a fallen hiker at Table Rocks. The first time was in May when Robert Linkous, 43, of Central Point, had to be hoisted to safety at the Lower Table Rock after he tried to climb a steep section and fell almost 100 feet. Linkous survived with broken bones and sprains.

"It's rotten rock," Walters said. "It's basalt columns, and they just kind of crumble away."

Even experienced hikers may not be aware of the mesas' dangers, Walters said. Students in a mountain rescue class he taught last week for Rogue Community College had to be warned away from the edges, Walters said.

"This is the time of year people get out and get in trouble," Walters said.

George-Bouknight said her older son told her that, while hiking with him and another friend, Steven Bouknight stepped on a boulder that gave way.

Bouknight's 23-year-old brother performed CPR before Mercy Flights paramedics arrived.

Bouknight, who lived with his parents on Winchester Street, had a bad knee that kept him from his goal of entering the military, his mother said. He was soon starting a job at Home Depot in Phoenix and worked at the Grange Co-op store in Ashland, she said. While attending South Medford High School, Bouknight sang in the choir.