Several years ago my friend told his manager he was quitting and left to hike the PCT for 6 months. Not long after he finished up his old job got in touch for contract work, and has been doing that since. He does a form of tech/PM consulting, not development, but I could see something similar happening in your case if you did the same.

You could frame it to your boss as you're leaving to take off time for a couple of months and just mention that you could be interested in coming back and go from there. Obviously no guarantees in either direction.