Congrats on some great looking bacon. Would you mind sharing the recipe for your cure?
I thought the same about my last batch regarding the salt. I sliced off a small piece before smoking it and fried it to test for salt level. I ended up soaking it in clear/clean water (probably should have used distilled but didn't have any) for an hour, tried it again, still a bit salty so changed water and soaked again and it was much better.
I found this recipe online and I doubled it for the 10lbs:
1/2 cup Kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1TBS black pepper
1TBS garlic powder
1 tsp curing salt
1/4 cup maple syrup
With the next batch (which might be awhile since 10lbs of bacon should last me a few months), I'm going to go 1/4 cup salt, 1/2 cup sugar, pepper but no garlic, and up the amount of maple syrup. For my soak, I used filtered tap water. I'll try distilled water next time to see if makes a difference.