Weeks before a 46-year-old Fort Collins woman was killed in a mountain lion attack near Estes Park, a Glen Haven resident fought off a lion on the same trail.
Gary Messina, an ultra marathon runner who frequented the Crosier Mountain Trail, said he was on a run the morning of Nov. 11 when he spotted two glowing eyes approximately 40 feet in the distance.
“I didn’t know what it was because it was dark, but my headlight gave off a little bit of light …,” Messina said, adding that he stopped running to investigate what he was seeing. “As I got closer and closer and closer to it, I (thought it) was a fox or something right on the trail.”
New Year’s Day attack
Kristen Marie Kovatch was found lying on the ground at around 12:15 p.m. Jan. 1 on the Crosier Mountain Trail. Hikers who found her scared away a nearby mountain lion.
“She died doing something she loved deeply, hiking and taking in the beauty of Colorado and its public lands,” her brother, Jeffrey Kovatch posted on Facebook. ” … Kristen was so loved by our immediate and extended family, her friends, and her coworkers.”
Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials euthanized two mountain lions in the area that day and initial necropsy results showed that one of the lions, an approximately 12-month-old male, had human DNA on all four of its paws. Both mountain lions tested negative for rabies and other neurological diseases.
“I am thoroughly convinced that lion was involved in the attack,” Mark Leslie, regional manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s northeast region, said during a news conference Monday evening about the necropsy results.
Messina’s Nov. 11 encounter
Still 30 to 40 feet away from the animal and not able to tell what kind it was, Messina said he stepped off the trail to put some distance between them. The animal was laying in the middle of the trail, not moving, he said.
“The eyes are following me,” he said he thought to himself. “I was like, ‘What the heck? it’s kind of looking at me.’”
That’s when he took his phone out to take a picture, he said, adding that a fox would have usually run off by then.
As the screen got brighter and brighter, the mountain lion rushed him. Within those few seconds, he said he chucked his phone at the lion, but that it began to circle him aggressively and lunge towards him.
“This cat didn’t want me to get away,” he said. “I couldn’t.”
For two minutes, Messina tried to fend the lion off with his voice and by kicking dirt, he said. He was afraid to bend over for a rock, worried the lion would have the perfect ability to pounce on his neck at that moment.
He saw a dead tree on its side and grabbed a branch about the size of a cricket bat, he said.
“I swung it like a bat and hit the mountain lion with it,” he said. “It ran off a little, but was still there, 20 to 30 feet away in the brush.”
He continued to back away slowly with a rock in hand until he felt safe enough to run back home, he said.
“I know we’re in their territory,” he said. “It was unlucky.”
He said he believed it was a bad cat, possibly even the cat that killed Kovatch based on its aggressive behavior. He got home and told his wife about what happened, but was in shock.
As an experienced ultramarathon runner who runs for hours at a time, often in the dark, he said he was always aware of mountain lions, but that the experience was scary, even for him.
“I was scared for my life,” he said, adding that he and his wife walked back to the trail to get his phone later that day, but that he no longer feels safe running on Crosier Mountain Trail.
There is an inherent danger out there, he said, adding that there is always going to be a risk of a mountain lion attack, even if it’s not a high one. Colorado Parks and Wildlife estimates there are 3,800 to 4,400 mountain lions in the state.
“It’s unfortunate and part of humans and wildlife coexisting,” he said.
Messina said he started running in Rocky Mountain National Park and in Estes Park instead.
“I’m not going to let this stop me from doing what I like,” he said and acknowledged that there are serious risks that come with driving, skiing, and other hobbies that don’t stop people from participating in them.
He said he tried to give the lion the benefit of the doubt, hoping it was a fluke attack, but said he heard of other encounters after the fact, including dogs attacked and killed, and then Kovatch.
“If it’s going to kill a human, (Colorado Parks and Wildlife) has the authority to protect humans,” Messina said. “It’s sad, but it’s good to know that when things come up … they take action. It’s dangerous to have cats like that around.”
Other mountain lion encounters
Since Oct. 28, there have been multiple reports of mountain lion sightings near Glen Haven made to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, including two dogs that were attacked and killed. One of the incidents happened in the 2000 block of McGraw Ranch Road in Estes Park and the other on West Creek Road in Larimer County.
On Nov. 30, a man and a woman hiking near Crosier Mountain trail reported that they saw two mountain lions, but were able to haze them away by yelling and throwing rocks.
On Dec. 23, a man on County Road 43 in Glen Haven shot and killed a 3-year-old adult male mountain lion that attacked his dog in his yard. Necropsy results showed that the lion didn’t have any abnormalities and the man was not cited for killing the lion.
None of these incidents were shared with the public until after the New Year’s Day attack, including Messina’s. During a press conference Monday, Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson Kara Van Hoose said the agency doesn’t have a policy around alerting the public of nonfatal attacks.
The amount of reports were consistent with prior years, Van Hoose said during the conference, adding that mountain lions follow deer and elk to lower elevations during colder months.
Map of mountain lion sightings, conflicts, and reports to CPW in Larimer County in 2025. (Courtesy of Colorado Parks and Wildlife)Colorado Parks and Wildlife takes action
After reporting the encounter to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Messina was told additional signage was placed at the trailhead warning of increased mountain lion activity, on top of the permanent signage at the trail which explains how to report a mountain lion sighting to CPW.
The additional signage was removed after a few weeks and put back up after the Nov. 30 sighting.
More signage at the trailhead warning people of increased mountain lion activity and aggressive behavior could help people be more aware of the risk, Messina said, but added that Colorado residents should know — and generally are aware of — the risks that come with hiking, trail running, and being in the mountains.
“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said. “ … I don’t want what happened to stop people from going to the mountains.”
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