Outlook calendar events disappeared after merging with iCloud calendar

I followed Apple's instructions to merge my Outlook calendar with a new iCloud calendar in an attempt to get my calendar on my iPhone and afterwards my Outlook and iCloud calendars were totally blank. I lost over 2000 calendar entries! After a lot of troubleshooting, I found that my Outlook calendar was deleted during the merge. Here's how I found it. Within Outlook, open the desired Calendar and select the option to customize the top menu ribbon. Then add a new tab and add in the "Folder List" option. Then click on the Outlook calendar with the missing data and click the "Folder List" option. Scroll down in the files and look for the Deleted folder and expand it. Here I found a file name "Calendar". Click on the Calendar file and the Calendar data should appear on the screen. Then right click on the file and select the option to Move / Copy it back to the Main Calendar folder. I selected the option to copy it because I wanted a backup in case the transfer didn't go well. Then my calendar reappeared! phew

-I learned an important lesson: BACKUP YOUR OUTLOOK FILES before making any changes.