I don't know about stopping completely, but I went for a couple of years with no regular playing. I'd maybe just noodle with things I knew really well for an hour or two, once or twice a month. I did forget a lot of stuff, and my technique was pretty rusty, but it all came back fairly quickly. I enjoyed it more the second time around too, because it felt more like learning quickly than remembering :)
I did the same, about 5 years of noodling - no learning whatsoever. Takes about a few weeks to get back. Actually, when I first picked up the guitar, I only played on and off, month on month or two off. Really bad for trying to learn when you are always trying to catch up to where you were before, I just had too much stuff going on. Now, if I take off a month I am fairly rusty - takes a week or so to get back. If I take off a week, I find my playing is better than expected. Maybe because i am more relaxed and just expecting to be bad. I wouldn't recommend taking time off unless you have to. I also agree with Chuckster about needing a recovery time now and again. When a part of a song is really frustrating you, I say put down the guitar or move on to something else and don't go back to that part until you sleep on it. Trust me, sleep is a miraculous thing. Your brain keeps working as you sleep storing all of the information during the day.
It's not easy being green.... good thing I'm purple.
